Razzle Bedazzled
by Flamewind
Summary: Mipsy started her journey at a big disadvantage, since she started with a wurmple. If she becomes a successful trainer, it will be a big surprise to those who think she'll follow in her parent's footsteps and own pokemon only for magic shows.
1. The Starting Problem

Disclaimer: Note that Avalonkitten doesn't own Pokemon or anything about it. Even though she wishes, it isn't happening, and the right to Pokemon goes to Nintendo.

I know that in Pokemon XD there is a pair of magicians called something like Razzle and Bedazzle, but understand that this story is not about them at all, and the character names were actually thought up before that game even came out.

**Chapter 1**

Mipsy Bedazzlement looked back at the small array of sparkling trailers and made a face at the watching crowd lining up around to see her off. The brown-haired girl could not have looked less enthusiastic. It would be better if she hadn't been sentenced already to start as so many of her relatives had…

She'd already been given a full speech about _her father and her father's father _and every cousin and half-cousin had started the same way as she was about to. But not only did she not pay attention to that speech, she had rebelled at even starting her journey because of it.

The short girl had always been put into a spotlight that wasn't hers to start with. It was because of her father, Raymond Bedazzlement, the man that worked behind the scenes at one of the most popular magic shows in Hoenn, _The Dancing Dragonite. _Most girls envied her for no reason, she was the one that had gotten to know the fire-eater and talk to the other people of the show.

But, with the exception of the fire-eater, most of the people of _The Dancing Dragonite _looked down on her and her ambitions to become an actual trainer, not one that trained for show. Mipsy hated it, she hated every moment of those little looks she got when she doodled a Ninjask and a Crobat being engaged in tough aerial combat on a spare flyer, and most of all hated the fact that she'd be starting with what could most probably be the poorest Pokemon to use as a starter.

Sure, Wurmple could evolve well and learn pretty good attacks, but compared to a fiery Torchic or a swift Treecko, they left much to be desired. She just… didn't understand why her great grandfather had ever gotten the idea to start with one-and start the tradition of his children and grandchildren starting with one.

As she stared at the people with bright, happy faces looking on at her, Mipsy had to wonder how many of them were expecting her to come back with a Skitty and a Kadabra, without a badge, and totally failed as a trainer. The very though of what she'd heard one of the acrobats of _The Dancing Dragonite _say made her grit her teeth and want to step on the woman's foot 'accidentally' for being so cliché.

The girl was determined to succeed, even if she had to train a Wurmple first, there were more fish in the sea. She was already hoping to strike it lucky and find a Surskit on her way through Route 102, a bug that could float on water and strike at different Pokemon with the ease that it showed outside of battle just had to be strong.

Mipsy's musings were interrupted when a boy she recognized as Brendan tapped her on the shoulder and smiled crookedly. "So you're here for your first Pokemon." He said, as if he hadn't been kicked out of the lab by Professor Birch to go find her a suitable Wurmple and train it to the traditional level five. He smiled warmly and beckoned for her to follow him inside the laboratory.

Giving a wave at her parents and the people from _The Dancing Dragonite _that were pretending to look interested, Mipsy followed into the lab and was hit by a wave of white. Men and women dressed in white overcoats were bustling everywhere, either going out of the lab by a side entrance on business, perhaps checking up on beginning trainers that hadn't called in to the laboratory to say that they'd made it to Petalburg City, or ones that had one of their Pokemon fall ill to the series of contagious sicknesses that were rumored to do funny things, one tall tale was that one of them turned a Torchic bright red and she hadn't been able to evolve, even at the correct level. One of the workers even let out a passenger Pelipper; he would be heading out a long way…

A man stood in the middle of all the chaos and he was easily recognizable as Professor Birch himself. When Mipsy got close enough, the man cleared his throat politely and said, "So, everything you need Mipsy will be waiting for you, but now I must apologize that you don't have much of a choice as to what Pokemon you're getting. Why don't you introduce her to her new Wurmple, Brendan?"

He shifted his gaze to the boy, who nodded slowly as he dug in a back pocket before coming up with a plain red and white Pokeball and offering it to Mipsy. The little orb sat in her palm perfectly, and for a moment she just gazed down at it before gathering her nerve and tossing it to the ground with a feeble, "Go, Wurmple."

The normal white flash occurred, which was replaced a moment later by a crimson bug that immediately rose onto her back sets of legs and looked around curiously. Mipsy just held her gaze at the Pokemon's level and felt herself blush as she could think of nothing good to say to her new partner. All that came out was a small, "Hello." But the caterpillar hadn't heard her.

Finally, Brendan gave her a friendly nudge in the right direction and accidentally pushed her over. At least it was a good way for her to get really close to the Wurmple… "Wurm-ple!" The bug squeaked in her high-pitched voice and skittered away as fast as her suction-cupped feet would allow.

Mipsy glared at the white floor, silently cursing it for her bad luck. "Wait…" She groaned as she hauled herself up and followed the bug shakily. This time, when her Wurmple looked around, she dropped onto her knees softly and held out one hand. "It appears we got off on the wrong… feet. Hi, I'm Mipsy and your trainer." Again Mipsy made a face as her introduction fell flat on her tongue.

When the Wurmple just stared, dumbfounded, at her, Brendan began to lip something and pointing frantically at the caterpillar. "Ta…ssss…" Trying to mimic the word he was repeating over and over again made her stammer out the name of the Wurmple exceedingly slowly, "…ie… Tassie!"

Tassie cocked her head to one side and made a curious 'oou' sound as she slowly made her way to her trainers palm and slowly climbed her arm. The little feet tickled as they inched forward lightly. "I think I'm ready for my other things now, Professor." Mipsy said as she got to her feet again steadily with Tassie looking her up and down with her large yellow eyes.

It didn't take long for her bag to be stuffed full of the items that Professor Birch had for her. But when she asked about her Pokedex, which was among the missing, his cheery smile disappeared. It was as if he'd been hoping that she didn't notice that a chunky book had replaced it. "You didn't know?" He asked gently.

* * *

Marvin watched his friend pace back and forth with her hands tearing at the long strands of her hair. "…They actually went and got my Pokedex stolen." Mipsy was growling, "My beautiful, new Pokedex from Professor Oak in Kanto, and it's gone." 

The chubby man with the dark brown hair and goatee listened to it all with an intense frown. When Mipsy had calmed down enough for him to speak, Marvin said, "At least you didn't have to pay for the handbook he gave you…"

"Yes, but it weights a ton!" She hissed, "And I'll have to wait a week if I want to get rid of it…"

"There's always passenger Pelipper if you get too far ahead." The fire-eater smiled as she stopped her rant completely and swallowed awkwardly, "That reminds me, you and your little Tassie had better get a move-on if you want some time to train today. Since it's your birthday and all, I suppose that you'd better have at least one gift before you go though…"

Out of nowhere, he produced a plastic bag and tossed it at her, "Present…?" She looked up from rubbing the side of Tassie's head to blink at him and the bag she was not holding in one hand. "When have you ever given me a present?"

"Since you became a full ten years old." Marvin replied with a mysterious smile, "Being a double-digit midget is somethin' to celebrate! My apologies for not finding you a nice little bag to put it in though…"

But Mipsy was already fishing in the bag and brought out a bright purple Pokeball that made her gasp in surprise. "A luxury ball." She said knowingly, gazing at it with awe. "You actually went out to a Pokemon contest to get me this…?"

"Ah, now, I'm not going to betray my sources." Marvin smiled crookedly again, "Now, shoo along now kiddo, you've got a long path ahead of you."

"Alright Marvin…" She had already stowed the plastic bag in her backpack, even though she was clueless to what it could be for. "And thanks." Mipsy nodded to him and stepped away, turning to face the opening in the woods that would lead to the first route, and start her adventure.

She'd already said her good-byes to her parents, who were exceedingly upset that the money they'd spent on getting a Pokedex delivered to her, had gone to waste for the start of her journey. But they had gotten over it far more quickly than she had.

Of course, Raymond, her father, had to mention that she had to call in every time she hit a major city or town; basically the ones with a contest center or gym. It had been a new rule issued on new Pokemon trainers, since the incident when Team Magma group had kidnapped a boy, they wanted just to know where a trainer was at all times. It had been a true pain for the people of Littleroot, more jobs opened at the laboratory and the town became just a little bit less sleepy.

But this wasn't the time to think of what could happen to her, it was a time to look into the future with a Pokemon by her side and a life ahead of her.

* * *

Route 101 was little more than a small strip of land that was sprawling with Pokemon life of all sorts. Tassie recognized this place immediately as her old home, before some strange human had plucked her off of a tree branch and stolen her away. Now as she looked over her trainer's shoulder, the Wurmple still couldn't believe that she was actually part of a fighting team. 

Mipsy was looking jealously at a group of beginning trainers that were milling around, two were sporting shiny-finned Mudkip and the other had a Torchic that was setting fire to the surrounding grass. After a while, though, she was poked by an impatient Wurmple's horn and moved on. "We can't battle them yet." The girl said nervously as she set off in the opposite direction with Tassie squeaking protest. "If we find someone with a Treecko… then perhaps it'll be different."

But it turned out that only the three other trainers over to the side of the route were the only ones, and Tassie was forced to battle a wild Zigzagoon in the place of a trained one. The small raccoon was not something that Mipsy would try battling again anytime soon, he was just a bit too much for her Wurmple to take with his superior speed and high defense.

In the end it was down to Tassie with little health left and a poisoned Zigzagoon that fled at the sight of Mipsy taking out a Pokeball. "Aww…" She groaned and looked after the stirred up underbrush that had once been a Zigzagoon standing there. Her Wurmple made another protesting sound when she was picked up and carried away, her trainer heading for Oldale Town and its Pokemon Center. "It's alright Tassie, everyone has to lose sometime." Mipsy murmured, inside being torn at the first battle she and Tassie had fought turning into a loss.

* * *

Tassie's treatment turned out to become an hour setback that Mipsy waited out with a sour, impatient face. It was partly because the only thing to do at a time like that was to read her Pokemon Handbook, and she seriously began to hate the thing with a new passion on reading the description of Wurmple that it gave: 

_'A weak Pokemon that learns only three moves in its short time in this form. It's common as the first Pokemon a beginning trainer catches, but normally their evolved forms do not tend to be common in professional teams. They're common prey-food for semi-large birds such as Swellow and Wingull.'_

"How anti-Wurmple can you get?" She growled at the book and slammed it shut moodily. The minute ticked by like they were going in slow motion, and slowly Mipsy got bored enough to open the handbook back up and flip to another page. After a bit of searching, she found the page on Surskit and her frown intensified when she read that the small bug-types tended to be overly shy and hated to battle.

By the end of the hour, Nurse Joy found the young girl sitting on a couch, glaring pointedly at her innocent-looking handbook on the floor under her. "Your Wurmple is fully restored. You be careful with her, now."

Mipsy accepted her Wurmple back, and Tassie let off a little 'oou' when she was hugged. "You'll be a good fighter yet." The girl told her Pokemon firmly.

A couple of minutes later they were back out into the wild of Route 102, the one that was supposedly holding Surskit in its lake. But as the duo passed it, not even a ripple went up on the water's surface, perhaps the bugs were hiding like the handbook had said they were good at.

At the thought of the Pokemon Handbook, Mipsy's mood soured once more, and she didn't even notice that something was watching her in the trees, a something that was thinking and reasoning with himself on what the sight of a trainer without on of the normal three starter Pokemon meant. Razzle the Ralts kept one eye on her as she and her Pokemon continued to walk on, about to run into a young boy with a Mudkip by his side and a Poochyena barking happily as he skipped ahead of his trainer.

She looked upset, as if this wasn't her best day ever, and it was plain to see that the way she stroked the side of her Wurmple's head was distracted. It took a while, but Razzle finally came to the conclusion that she was angry about something, and deep in thought at the same time, even her body language gave that hint. So he also decided he'd try his hand at cheering the beginning trainer up.

Tassie had begun to make strange sounds when they'd passed a certain point, and was beginning to sound half-hysterical when her trainer started to pay attention to her. "What is it?" Mipsy repeated for the second time as her Wurmple jerked her horn in one direction and kept repeating the frantic 'oou' sound.

Finally, a brushing of her jean leg got her attention focused in the correct direction. _Down. _Standing right in front of her was another of the more rare Pokemon that beginning trainers barely ever saw, a Ralts. Mipsy had to stare at the little, squat, human-shaped Pokemon for a while before recognizing what he was. "Wow, a Ralts." She breathed.

_"Hello to you too."_

The male voice was so unexpected that she jumped back and looked around suspiciously, "Who said that?"

_"Me. Down here, the one you said 'Wow, a Ralts' to."_ Mipsy looked down at the Ralts suspiciously and Tassie let off one last 'oou' sound before falling silent completely.

"Pokemon can't talk. You're a figment of my imagination." She replied to him nervously.

_"Oh then… I suppose this figment should leave…"_ When the Ralts turned around and looked about to leave, he pretended to start walking and then stop at the protesting whimper that Mipsy let off. _"Yes?"_

"Don't leave… how can you talk?"

_"I'm a figment, remember?"_ The Ralts turned back around and smirked up at the trainer, _"You don't know a psychic can make himself heard to anyone?"_

"Oh."

_"Oh."_ He mimicked her in a girly accent.

"You're quite a flippant figment, you know that?"

_"Oh well, you can't please everyone."_ He was grinning widely, _"I'm Razzle, by the by."_

"Razzle's a nice name." Mipsy replied, "I'm Mipsy-"

_"And you're a trainer."_ Razzle exclaimed over her brightly, "_Where's your blue fin? Or did you get one of those orange chickens? Oooohhh, I know, you got a lizard! Admit it, it's the big gecko."_

"Ummm… what?" She blinked blankly as Tassie squeaked something at the Ralts and his eyes widened.

_"You don't have a gecko? Or a chicken, and not even a blue fin? Oh my gosh! You're actually different!"_ Razzle bobbled his head up and down as he though quickly and finally coughed, _"Perhaps… you'd like my company? I could get you past the first gym thingy, before you'd have to let me back into the wild."_ He smiled serenely, _"Wouldn't I be just the best partner?"_

"I think I'll just catch you if you want to come along." Mipsy replied.

_"What's the fun in that? I'm a professional Pokemon, you couldn't catch me anyway."_

"Can't I try though?"

_"When I would just come along with you without a fight?"_

Mipsy let off a long sigh and finally gave in to his argument, the Ralts agreed to pretend to be one of her Pokemon for a while, until after the first gym battle, and then after that he'd be returning to Route 102. He called this 'borrowing' for some strange reason only known to him. Finally, Mipsy asked the final question of, "What attacks do you know?"

And then there was a long pause in which the Ralts made a face and swallowed awkwardly. _"I'm incapable of using psychic attacks right now."_

Mipsy put a hand to her forehead and groaned, "'Professional Pokemon,' eh?"


	2. The Problem With Shroomish

Since reviews can now be answered outside of stories, I'll be hitting the 'reply' button under your review for each and every one of them. ...And that's all the author's notes. Wow, short. xD

**Chapter 2**

The small company had been walking through the Route for a while, and there was no sign of wild Pokemon in that amount of time. Mipsy had tried starting little bits of conversation with Razzle, but it had never lasted for long. The Wurmple on her shoulder let of pathetic little 'oou' sounds every other minute, completely bored.

_"Are we lost yet?"_ Razzle finally asked.

"What?"

_"Are. We. Lost. Yet?"_

"Well, we're not there yet…"

_"So we're lost."_ Razzle giggled.

"If you really want to say it like that." Mipsy was unsure she liked the idea of being lost in a place that seemed to be void of all people, "But this is your home! You should know where we are."

She looked meaningfully upon the Ralts, and he seemed to grow a little nervous, _"I've never been to Petalburg City before."_

If Mipsy was shocked by this revelation, she didn't show it. "Oh. And perhaps do you know where all the Pokemon are…?"

_"Hiding."_

"Why?"

_"Because that's what wild Pokemon do."_

The trainer huffed, "We need to battle, for the practice." She said slowly to him, and Tassie's 'oou' was of complete agreement.

_"Well why didn't you just say so?"_ He giggled again and exclaimed into the woods in his own tongue. There was a pause, as it echoed, and finally a Poochyena peeked out from a bush, his fangs bared in a snarl.

_"Uh-oh."_

"What'd you say?" She asked irritably.

Tassie spoke up, but Mipsy didn't understand what she said, _"He yelled, "Hey all you stupid wild Pokemon!" He's in for it now…"_

_"Eh… what she said."_ Razzle stated as the Poochyena spotted him and charged forward for a Tackle attack. The Ralts jumped to the side just in time for her attack to hit the ground instead of him, but she recovered quickly and cried wildly on her way back around.

"Do something Razzle!" Mipsy exclaimed, and he replied by growling loudly at his opponent. It was a surprising sound; a Ralts didn't look like it would be capable of such a noise, but effective in that it startled his opponent. "Now attack it!"

Razzle then paused and put his arm to his forehead, _"I can't."_ He finally replied, and dodged yet another haphazard tackle. She bit her lip and fished out the chunky Pokemon Handbook and quickly scanned the attacks. _'Confusion-Level 6'_

_Oh crap, he's under level six!_ She looked to Tassie, who was watching the battle with interest, and said, "You've got to help him." Mipsy plucked the Wurmple off of her shoulder and set her down where the two already battling where running out of steam; Razzle from dodging, Poochyena from attempted attacks. She charged the dog Pokemon with all the speed she could and rammed her with her horn.

Seeing that her opponent had reinforcements, the Poochyena howled once before turning around and darting away. She was limping lightly from the puncture wound in her leg from Tassie's tackle. The Wurmple was looking exceedingly proud when she returned to her trainer's side.

"What level are you at, Razzle?" Mipsy questioned when he sat down where he stood, panting.

_"Level one millionty. I really don't know."_

"You both need training." Mipsy stated bluntly, "So Razzle, call another Pokemon over, if you can be polite this time."

_"That first one wasn't polite?"_ He asked, and Tassie shook her head with a Wurmple laugh.

* * *

_"Look, a Seedot!"_ Razzle exclaimed boredly, _"Are we looking to battle it, too?"_

"Yup, all together now!" She replied cheerfully, holding Tassie at arm's length as the Wurmple shot a Poison Sting at it. But the problem was, the poisonous strands hit everything _but_ the Seedot.

"Yunno what, there's an easier way to do this." Mipsy stated as she put her Pokemon down on the ground, went over to the tree, and, standing on her tiptoes, grabbed the acorn Pokemon.

"Seeeedot!" It exclaimed as it dropped off of the tree and slipped out of her hands. It bounced off of her head on its way to the ground, and rolled away.

Mipsy stood there dazed, with a large bump swelling upon her head. "One word." She growled through clenched teeth at the two watching Pokemon, Razzle holding one hand over his mouth to muffle the laughter.

After a few minutes of sitting on a fallen log and rubbing her head, Mipsy asked, "How many Pokemon have we seen now?"

_"Two Poochyena, both who fled. One Zigzagoon, which you two ran from for some reason. And three Seedot, two of which we won against, and this one who decided your head looked like a nice landing spot."_ Razzle supplied cheerfully.

"I thought that Wurmple were here." She replied, "Where are they?"

_"Most of us are away from the main path, eating and preparing for evolution."_ Tassie replied, and looked meaningfully at Razzle to translate it. Finally, he did, but grudgingly.

Mipsy bit her tongue before it would let her sudden thought slip. Instead, she got to her feet and placed Tassie back on her shoulder, "Come on, let's get to Petalburg." She murmured.

_"I thought we wanted to train…?"_ Tassie whispered to the Ralts, who shrugged up at her.

* * *

The sun's light was but a faint glow in the west when they'd finally made the first steps upon Petalburg's soil. It'd taken about an hour for Mipsy to find the main path again, and from there it was smooth sailing. They'd come across only one wild Pokemon on the way, a Wurmple actually. Tassie had battle him, but she looked like she regretted it the rest of the way. 

Their first stop was the Pokemon Center, where food was the top priority. The Chansey that served them would remember the large amount of mince pie that disappeared when she set it down.

While Razzle and Tassie were going to sleep in another room while they recovered from slight scuffs and bruises from that day, Mipsy was left alone with another hour's worth of time before she would be able to drop asleep.

_'If today is some clue, this is definitely going to be an… interesting journey. What a fun birthday, chasing around Poochyena and getting hit in the head by a random Seedot. I wonder what happened to my Pokedex, it could help right about now. Hopefully when I get the new one, it'll have some sort of level counter on it.'_ Mipsy thought and sighed as she took the Pokemon Handbook, which opened automatically to the page that had Wurmple on it, as she'd creased it there with use.

The next page had two pictures of two similar Pokemon, Silcoon and Cascoon. The footnote read:

_'Silcoon and Cascoon are both the evolutions of Wurmple. It is unknown how Wurmple chooses between these, but it's most commonly said that it becomes a Silcoon with kindness, and a Cascoon from abuse. Both are weak and mostly immobile, only use Harden, unless in dire need of defense, and eat nothing.'_

Mipsy muttered under her breath at it and looked to the opposite page, where a Beautifly sat with its magnificent wings spread. The only interesting thing the footnote mentioned was that Beautifly were _'the product of good training and care. If treated correctly, their wings will have a healthy luster. But this Pokemon species as a whole is very sensitive, and they may attack with their long proboscis if they feel threatened.'_

She half-smiled as she turned the page, and was shocked by the difference between Beautifly and the other evolution, Dustox. Again, only part of it was of any interest… _'Dustox are creatures that show little emotion in anything, to better curb their natural psychic powers. The poison they have in their wings is powerful enough to get a pro wrestler sick.'_

_'Both are good.'_ She thought, turning the page back to look at the Beautifly again, _'But I really hope Tassie will decide Silcoon is a better evolution. Then again, wasn't it a Dustox that both my father and grandfather ended up with? Yeah, Dad mentioned a Dustox when we were arguing…'_

Mipsy sighed and shut the handbook with a snap, setting it down on the floor, "I don't want to think about this now." She stated audibly and settled into her sleeping bag. The girl was overwhelmed with sleep quickly, and her dreams were of Wurmple.

* * *

After a good breakfast, Mipsy looked to the telephones and grinned. "We forgot to call in yesterday." She told her Pokemon, "Now that we're rested, how about we give the people there a good show? Remember Razzle, you're my Pokemon for now." 

_"Okay."_ He replied automatically, _"I'll give them a good show!"_

"Don't go overboard, hopefully we'll be talking to Professor Birch." Mipsy laughed. She dialed the correct number from memory and waited.

After two rings, the familiar face of Brendan came up on the screen and he was smiling. "Good morning!" He said cheerfully, "I suppose you're in Petalburg, eh?"

"Exactly. And I caught a Pokemon too!" She attempted a smile through the lie, and failed. Razzle peeked over her shoulder and waved.

"Wow, a Ralts. Those are really rare Mipsy, congrats for catching one! Well anyways, I've got big news of my own." Brendan was grinning by now, "I get to go out and go on a normal journey, like you! We're now officially rivals!"

She coughed. Rivals? The boy that went out, captured and trained her Wurmple would be her rival? "T-that's wonderful Brendan!" Mipsy managed to cough, "But we are _friendly_ rivals, right?"

"Of course. I'll see you in Rustboro City, hopefully." Then the screen went blank, and a pale Mipsy turned away from it.

_"You look like you saw a Dusclops."_ Razzle observed, _"Having a rival can't be that bad, right?"_

"Brendan's got such a head start on me, he'll cream us in every battle." Mipsy whispered.

_"It takes more muscles to frown than to smile Mipsy. Cheer up, come on, it'll be alright. You're going to have me to battle with at least the first time."_

"Come on, we'd better get moving. There'll be a lot of training ahead."

_"What about the gym?"_ Razzle asked quickly.

"Oh no, the Petalburg Gym is a bit too advanced for us. It's ranked as the gym most trainers visit fifth." She replied, and thought for a split-second that Razzle was frowning thoughtfully.

* * *

The first thing in Route 104 that happened was Mipsy found a trainer. Actually, she found a couple, but only challenged the one that wasn't sporting a Torchic or a Mudkip. This person had a Treecko, and she had a type advantage with Tassie. 

Razzle just sat down in the tall grass and watched the battle as it began; Tassie verses a Treecko (named Root, as was revealed by his trainer). The trainer that had agreed to the battle was named Jack, and was sporting a sideways brown cap.

"Start with Pound, Root!" Jack exclaimed, and the swift gecko ran at Tassie, while she lowered her horn and jabbed it at him as his tail came around and crashed against her side. Tassie fell and skidded off to the side, while Root's tail had been scratched visibly. He began to waver where he stood, the effects of poison quickly setting in.

The Treecko attempted to ignore the way his sight was swimming and jumped forward, using Pound repeatedly with his tail. Tassie wasn't fast enough to avoid the attacks, nor counter unless the tail rapped her horn, so she was getting pushed around like a rag doll. Her trainer was looking nervously at the battle, feeling completely useless to her Wurmple.

Finally, a small idea hit her. "Tassie, try to roll into a ball!" With the help of one well-laid pound, Tassie's middle arched up and she formed the best ball a Wurmple could manage. The next attack that hit her made the Wurmple-ball to roll a good distance away, and the poisoned Root launched after her, but wasn't fast enough to get to her before Mipsy's next order came, "Okay, unroll and use your horn!"

Tassie did as she was told, and rammed her horn under Root's foot, sending him flying back a foot, where he landed and skidded to a stop before his trainer's feet. He'd fainted, and a second after the Treecko had been recalled, Tassie collapsed into an exhausted heap.

* * *

Mipsy was smiling, almost foolishly, as they journeyed closer to the forest. She was proud of the Wurmple on her shoulder, of course, and was jingling the extra coins that the win had gotten them. Jack hadn't had many Pokedollars, so she just took the change he had. It didn't seem completely fair to take half of what little he had. 

_"Yunno, I think that Tassie had a level advantage in that battle."_ Razzle finally said, the first time he'd spoken in a while.

"Oh?"

_"That Treecko looked really green to me."_

"Well duh, it is a grass type." Mipsy laughed.

_"I didn't mean green like that! But you're right. He looked like the inexperienced Treecko that normally come from the lab. 'Root' hadn't been trained much."_

There was a pause, in which both Mipsy and Tassie considered the look of the Treecko. "I wouldn't know." She finally said, "It looked like a Treecko to me, nothing special."

Tassie chipped in with an 'oou' and a nod. Razzle seemed to smile and turned at a rustling sound, _"Hey look, a Wurmple."_ He said, pointing out the crimson bug.

Mipsy smiled when her own Wurmple crawled from her shoulder directly onto the tree and up to where the Wurmple was. "Don't get lost Tassie." She said to her Pokemon, "I'll be around…"

_"And I will too!"_

"Oou!" She exclaimed, waving her tail at them.

Mipsy and Razzle continued a little ways into a clearing, and sat down, watching a Shroomish couple walk by. Finally, the Ralts said, _"Please tell me we can practice on these Shroomish."_

Another group of them were passing by, and it seemed that more were in the bushes. "Do you think it would by alright with all these Shroomish if we fought one…?" Mipsy replied nervously, "We don't want to anger them, you know."

_"It'll be fine!"_ He replied, _"We've just got to get one alone."_

The two of them sat there for a while longer, waiting for a single Shroomish to pass by, but it didn't seem to be happening. After a while, Tassie found them and curled up in the grass at Mipsy's side.

That was just about the time Razzle's impatience became too much, and he picked one of the Shroomish up from a rather large group, but promptly dropped the mushroom Pokemon.

Suddenly, Razzle didn't think this was such a great idea after all, when he found himself surrounded by aggravated Shroomish. And he didn't know any attack moves. More Shroomish, seeing that some of their fellows were in danger, came to attack the nearest thing, Mipsy and Tassie.

The trainer wasn't fast enough to avoid the cloud of bright yellow dust shot at her and fell over, paralyzed. Tassie hadn't been affected as badly though, and was beginning to fight off the small Pokemon with her horn.

_'Oh great.'_ Mipsy thought, _'Now I'm completely useless.'_

Razzle saw his 'adopted' trainer fall over and gasped in fury at the Shroomish. This wasn't the way they were supposed to act! He didn't even notice the pent-up feeling appearing in his gut, until the bright purple glow around his body was powerful enough to catch his attention. Using his anger as a magnifier, Razzle pointed at a cluster of the mushroom Pokemon, and they were sent flying.

The five that had been hit by the Confusion saw the look on his face and retreated, calling to their fellows to do the same. It took a bit, but the Shroomish left, leaving them to their peace.

_"Never, NEVER do that again!"_ Tassie hissed at him weakly, _"Don't you know Shroomish sometimes fight in hordes?"_

The purple aura faded from Razzle as he dropped his head, _"N-no…"_

_"What are we going to do about Mipsy, huh?"_ She continued angrily. The girl hadn't managed to budge from the position she'd landed in; the only movement she managed was her breathing.

_"Umm… isn't there a berry that can cure paralysis?"_

_"Yeah, but where are we going to find it?"_

_"You do know that in a forest, there are berries."_ A Taillow laughed from one of the trees, _"And most of the berries are bright colors too."_

Razzle glared up at her irritably, _"That's nice, but we need the berry now."_

_"If you would just look, you'd find what you're looking for."_ The Taillow chirruped, pointing with one talon towards a nearby bush that was dotted with bright red berries.

_"Oh good, you go get one Tassie!"_ Razzle exclaimed.

_"What? This is your fault, you go get the berry!"_

The little bird's head went side to side as the argument continued along those lines for a while, until she finally huffed and flitted over to the bush, picking the plumpest Cheri berry there, and returning with it in her beak to perch right in front of them proudly.

_"But you're more-"_ Razzle paused as he finally saw the bright red berry, _"Never mind."_ He took the Cheri berry and squeezed it until a steady flow of juice was coming from it, and let it flow into Mipsy's half-open mouth.

After a few seconds, the girl stirred and exclaimed, "Goodness, that's spicy!"

_"Mipsy's better."_ Tassie said cheerfully.

"Is that a Taillow?" She continued at the sight of the bird. "Cool! They're supposed to be really fast!"

The Taillow bobbed her head in a bow and said, _"And now is the time I should depart."_ She cackled and flew into her tree, out if sight.

_"Why does it seem that every Pokemon we meet runs from us?"_ Razzle said.

She looked over to him and was glaring as she said, "If you see another Shroomish, do not touch it. Leave it alone and we'll be alright."

_"I can fight them off now."_ He replied, _"So we've got no problem."_

Mipsy ignored him and got to her feet, walking over to the Cheri berry bush and selecting a couple of them. "Don't drop them and we can go Shroomish hunting." She said with a wicked grin as she placed the two berries in Razzle's arms.

The Ralts looked down at the berries and grinned right back at her as they were caught up in a purple aura and floated. Only for a second though, before falling back down. _"Dang, that can't be good."_ He said thoughtfully, looking down at the two and trying to psychically pick them up. It didn't work well, they stayed where they were.

"You don't know Confusion after all, do you?" Tassie asked, blinking at where the red berries would glow purple for a second, budge, and then relax again.

_"All I need is practice!"_ Razzle exclaimed nervously.


	3. Wins and Losses

**Chapter 3**

The surrounding trees thickened dramatically as the trio plodded further into Petalburg Forest. Here was where the truly ancient oaks stood, silent guardians over the Pokemon that inhabited their range. It was here that more Wurmple began to show up, inching along branches, chewing on leaves browning for the coming of Fall.

There were also a few of Wurmple's evolved forms, an odd Silcoon here or there, and also the rare Cascoon. As they passed by these motionless figures, Tassie looked around at them with a gleam of an unknown emotion in her blank, unblinking eyes.

No other trainer was in sight, and the Pokemon around seemed to be unafraid of Mipsy and her companions, so she figured they'd passed a point where the only battles they'd be participating in were ones they challenged the wild Pokemon to. The trainer glanced through the corner of her eye at Tassie; she'd started out with Mipsy at level five, so her own evolution had to be close.

Yet again she was reminded of what the Pokemon Handbook had mentioned about Wurmple's evolutions. Even though she couldn't control the way Tassie would evolve, the off chance that she'd someday have the choice between becoming a Dustox or a Beautifly troubled the girl. She'd only known the caterpillar for under two days, of course, but in that short period of time had gotten to know her as best as the allotted time allowed.

Could she become a Dustox? Tassie didn't seem to be the type that could curb her emotions for the sake of not having excessive psychic powers. She was prone to making her little 'oou' sounds when things got too quiet, like after Razzle got done attempting, and failing, to use any form of psychic attack.

That brought up a whole different subject, what was Mipsy to do once Tassie evolved into a nearly motionless cocoon? She very well couldn't depend solely on Razzle, especially if they were to win at Rustboro Gym, and putting Cascoon or Silcoon Tassie into a battle would be just wrong.

They needed to catch another Pokemon, and soon to put some experience in for him.

Coming out of her reverie, Mipsy sighed to both Razzle and Tassie, "Be on the lookout for a Pokemon-that's not a Shroomish or Wurmple evolution."

"Oou." Tassie replied cheerfully.

"What'd she say?" The trainer asked Razzle, who'd been busy counting the roots of each tree they passed, trying to figure which was the biggest one.

_"Huh?"_ He replied dully. _"Ohhh… she said okay. I'll try too, just wait!"_

The Ralts smiled and looked to the forest, where he let off a call in his own tongue and waited for a couple of seconds. A Zigzagoon came crashing out of the underbrush, his bushy tail raised high. "Wow Razzle, what'd you say?"

_"I just said… the first Pokemon to attack me gets a free bunch of berries!"_ Razzle exclaimed in reply.

Both Mipsy and Tassie had the same expression on their faces at that point. "You just promised that Zigzagoon our berry supply?" Mipsy finally said, and groaned. They'd found a patch of Oran berries a little ways back, and had taken a couple of the more promising ones, which made their supply of berries like a miniature feast for one Pokemon.

_"Yup."_

"Oou…" Tassie sighed, and it must have been a reminder of the Zigzagoon, because Razzle turned back to the raccoon and growled at it.

He retaliated with a tackle that knocked Razzle over and was preparing to leap onto the Ralts. Seeing the Zigzagoon's back legs bunch up, Razzle raised one hand and attempted a confusion attack that turned into a brief flicker of power that only ruffled his opponent's fur.

Tassie was already on her way at that point. A sticky strand of thread shot from her mouth at the raccoon, and hit him on one leg, successfully pinning him down. Razzle got to his feet and stepped away, heading back to Mipsy, while Tassie hit the Zigzagoon with her horn a couple of times, before he broke away from the strands holding his leg down and tackled back.

Wurmple and Zigzagoon collided for a final time, before one of them let out a final whimper and retreated. Tassie remained where she stood, and would be smiling if she could.

And then… Mipsy was about to exclaim with joy at the win, when Tassie rose her head and gave an ear-piercingly shrill cry. Razzle had already cuffed the sides of his head, expecting something like it already. The Wurmple kept her gaze skyward as she sprayed her sticky thread upwards, intending it to fall back upon her a second later.

When her body was reasonably covered, the bright white evolutionary light took over. The plump caterpillar's form rounded out, horns sinking down, feet folding in. Tassie's trainer was too stunned to say anything, just watched with a lump in her throat. Now the question would be answered: _Silcoon or Cascoon?_

Finally, the light fell away, and the cocoon's color was revealed. It was somewhere in between a bright white, and a dark purple. Mipsy blinked at it and said, "Uhh… she's a Silcoon."

_"No she's not, she's a Cascoon!"_ Razzle argued.

"No, no, she's definitely a Silcoon." She growled.

_"I'm telling you, that's not a Silcoon."_

They continued on like that for a while, Tassie's bright red eye going from Razzle to Mipsy, and back again, until the Ralts said,_ "Okay, I'll tell you what, she's both. Tassie is a Sascoon, and will someday become a beautiful-if moody-Dustfly."_

And then, Tassie let off an offended little cry at him. Razzle seemed to smile, and shrugged at her, whispering, _"But I secretly know you're a Cascoon."_

* * *

The sun was low in the sky, casting an eerie orange shadow upon the ground, when they finally decided to set up camp for the night. Tassie, who'd grown much heavier, had already fell asleep and been returned to her Pokeball, while Razzle kept Mipsy company instead. 

The two of them found a small clearing, where they had to chase off a Poochyena, before settling there. Mipsy's bedroll was off to the side, a dark blue splotch on the grass. And in the middle, a circle of stones was placed, and a fire erected in the center of it. (Even though Mipsy had to sit beside it for about ten minutes, rubbing two stones together with her eyebrows knitted together.)

While the fire crackled merrily, Tassie was released from her ball, still asleep. The cocoon was placed by the bedroll, while her two friends whiled away a bit more time in front of the fire. "Razzle…" Mipsy finally murmured, "When you first used that confusion attack, what were you feeling?"

_"I was angry. Why?"_ The Ralts glanced over at her, and saw that the trainer was reading from her giant handbook in the firelight.

"It says that normal psychic powers are fueled by emotions." Mipsy answered, then paused for a moment, deep in thought. She racked her brain for the right way to say what she was thinking, and finally it came out, "Razzle… imagine something awful happen to someone you really like."

The Ralts coughed, _"O-okay…"_ He stammered, _"I'll do that."_

"Are you imagining it?" Razzle nodded, "How does it make you feel?"

_"Well, I'm confused."_

Mipsy put a hand over her eyes, sighing, "This isn't working."

_"What are you trying to do?"_

"Get you to get angry."

_"Oh that's easy."_ Razzle replied, _"Just insult me."_

"Insult you." She repeated doubtfully, wondering what kinds of things would be insulting to a Ralts. No insults presented themselves, so she said instead, "Razzle, you are so _short_. I mean, even Tassie is bigger than you now."

And instead of taking that seriously, the Ralts just laughed to himself. "Never mind. We'll try this in the morning." Mipsy yawned, "Then you'd better be ready for some real insults…"

* * *

At dawn, Mipsy was up and ready to go. She'd already banked the embers of their former fire, and woken her two companions up. _"Five more minutes…"_ Razzle groaned, _"…No, five more hours."_

"Right now Razzle, up and at 'em!" She exclaimed cheerfully, and he groaned again. "If we make it to Rustboro in good time, we may be able to start a challenge at the gym…"

After a bit more struggle, the Ralts got to his feet and shuffled by Mipsy's side, half asleep. He looked like he was about to fall asleep on his feet at any second, and almost did until Mipsy began to talk to him. Petalburg Forest gradually ended the more north they went, until the trees were behind them.

A stretch of green met their eyes, no trees were in sight. A calm lake was ahead as well, along with a few people sitting on the bridge that crossed the water. Most on the bridge were couples holding hands, admiring the view before it became too hot to just be sitting around.

There were occasional trainers here and there, and Mipsy caught the eye of one, a boy with a Torchic leaning sleepily on her trainer's leg. He looked to be about her age, maybe a bit older, and had a stocky body offset by limbs a bit too thin in comparison. "Looking for a battle?" She asked when she was within earshot of him.

"Hmm… sure, I'll take you on." The boy shrugged and took a Pokeball off his belt, "Two on two alright with you?"

"Fine." Mipsy agreed, though with reluctance at the thought of letting Tassie out to fight. She'd save her for last, if she could. He nodded and tossed the ball, revealing a Shroomish. "Go on, Razzle. And be angry."

_"Angry… right…"_ The Ralts repeated doubtfully. The Shroomish made the first move, rushing forward to tackle him. Razzle's growl was caught up in his mouth when the mushroom barreled into his chest first.

He avoided the second tackle, and tried to throw his opponent with a psychic attack, only managing to knock the Shroomish off balance. Focusing on his thoughts, Razzle tried to think of something that he found really aggravating. Another tackle landed upon him while he was thinking, and he fell over when he finally thought back to the scene where Mipsy had just been hit by a stun spore from the very same kind of Pokemon he was battling.

Mipsy cheered when a purple aura overcame the Shroomish, and he was sent barreling away from Razzle. He didn't move from where he landed. "Shroomish, return." The other trainer recalled his Pokemon, and nudged the Torchic forward.

Razzle breathed heavily and tried to use confusion again, but couldn't picture the Torchic having done anything wrong to him. (Torchic, after all, couldn't use stun spore.) The attack returned to its useless self, and Razzle fell over, feeling faint, when the chick Pokemon hit him with an ember attack.

He was vaguely surprised when Mipsy ran over to where he'd fell and offered him an Oran berry. "Hey, what about your other Pokemon?" The boy exclaimed when she didn't appear to be going anywhere.

She looked up for a moment, having already decided, "My other Pokemon cannot battle yet, so you win." Then Mipsy turned her attention back to Razzle, even though he wasn't technically her Pokemon.

"Yay, I won!" The trainer exclaimed, sounding overjoyed at that point. His Torchic drooped a bit for some reason.

A sarcastic little laugh came from a little bit away, from an older girl standing a bit away. She might have been around thirteen, standing much taller than Mipsy. A dark gray skirt hung limply at her waist, far too big, matching the black shirt she wore that had its sleeves completely cut off. Upon her crown of fiery red hair sat a Ninjask who sported a terminally bored look.

"Only newbies refer to themselves instead of their Pokemon." She said in a deliberately loud voice, pretending to only talk to the Ninjask.

Seconds later, the boy that had originally been battling Mipsy was growling a challenge at the newcomer through gritted teeth. "Must have insulted him." She murmured to herself.

The other girl grinned and beckoned to her Ninjask, who calmly hovered off of her head and settle on the ground on eye level with the Torchic, the bored look never leaving. "Alright Torchic, you have a type advantage! Use ember!"

The small chick nodded and fired small bits of flame at the bug. "Fury cutter." The girl murmured. What happened next was in a matter of seconds; the Ninjask disappeared though the sound of his buzzing wings was obvious in the air, he appeared again behind his opponent, and slashed down with his sharp claws.

And then it was over. "Simple newbies." The girl said pointedly, "Go away now and I won't take your money." And taking that as a warning, the other trainer recalled his Torchic and darted away.

Razzle, who had been revived by the berry he'd managed to gulp down, nudged Mipsy when the other girl's gaze turned to her. "And why," she demanded, "did you only use one Pokemon when you agreed to a two on two match?"

"Because my other Pokemon is in no condition to fight." Mipsy replied.

"Good job, Jitsu." She murmured instead to her Ninjask when he returned to her head. The girl seemed to forget about Mipsy for a bit while she focused her attention on her Pokemon, and the next question came with unexpected suddenness, "What's wrong with your other Pokemon?"

"Oh, uhh… nothing's wrong with her, she's just… well, you see, she's a Silcoon." And the trainer cast a warning glance at Razzle, as if to say this wasn't the best time for them to get into an argument about what Tassie had evolved into.

"Ah." An awkward silence followed. Then: "That was sure nice of you."

"…Well… it didn't seem fair." Mipsy replied uncomfortably.

"It wouldn't have been." The girl agreed. "What's your name, kid?"

"Mipsy."

"Well Mipsy, I think you have promise. We _will_ meet again." And with that, she swept away with a mysterious smirk, heading for Rustboro.

Mipsy and Razzle exchanged glances, and the Ralts said, _"I sure hope she's right, because we're sure going to need your 'promise' for the gym match."_

"At least she scared off that boy before he took his winnings." She replied, running one finger across the few bills she did have still in her pocket. "C'mon Razzle, let's get to Rustboro…"

* * *

And so they went, it was lunchtime when they reached Rustboro City. The city streets were mostly empty at this time of day because of that, and the trainer got to the Pokemon Center without many problems. 

The Chansey on duty behind the front desk took one look at Mipsy, Razzle, and Tassie, and pointed one plump paw to where another couple of trainers and their Pokemon were eating from a large pot of what looked to be vegetable soup. She stared when the addition of Razzle and Mipsy quickly took bowls and the soup began to disappear… fast.

_"You'd think trainers now-a-days would pack better meals for their trips."_ She murmured to herself with a sigh.

Tassie dozed off again, and didn't notice that she became the subject of a conversation once the vegetable soup was suitably dead. "I think she's a Cascoon." One of the trainers was saying, and Razzle nodding agreement, "…But then again, maybe she's a Silcoon."

"Maybe she's some cross-breed?" Suggested a girl with a Treecko trying to balance on her shoulder, "And will evolve into a-"

_"Dustfly."_ Razzle interrupted, _"If she's a cross-breed, she'll become a Dustfly."_

"And how do you know that?" She asked pointedly.

_"Be-cause."_ He growled, _"Dustfly sounds better than Beautox. Now doesn't it?"_

"You have no idea, do you?"

_"Nope."_

And so it continued on like that for a while, until the eye facing Mipsy on her cocoon Pokemon opened, and Tassie let out an irritated little squeak to get them to stop. _"Perhaps we should leave now?"_ Razzle offered, _"To the gym, away!"_

He bounced out of the Center, and left the rest to look after him. "Better follow, something bad might happen to him…" Mipsy whispered to Tassie as she hefted her up and followed after, to a little 'oou' laugh from the cocoon.

Razzle had ambled ahead to a large building whose masonry was different than that of its surrounding fellows. Instead of bricks, large gray stone slabs had been set in place to form the gray monolith before them. At the top of each corner stood a pillar with an oversized Pokeball at the top. And to prevent and other doubts, there hung a sign made out of a thick sheet of wood with the word 'GYM' engraved in big block letters.

"Well guys, this is it." Mipsy said blankly. "…I hate to say it, but we barely have any chance at all of winning, especially since this is a rock Pokemon gym."

_"At least we'll try."_ Razzle replied, trying to be enthusiastic, _"And if we don't win, at least you'll still have me, Mipsy. Isn't that a wonderful consolation prize?"_

"…Maybe." The trainer replied, "Tassie, do you want to stay out and watch?"

Razzle huffed when he heard what she had to say, and translated, _"Aren't you a vote of confidence? She said sure, and that she wanted to see me get beaten up by living rocks."_

The girl just laughed, and nodded, as she stepped up to the sliding doors in front of the gym. They obediently parted for her, and she entered, being followed closely behind by the Ralts. The inside of the gym appeared to be more of a cave; it had the eerie feel of one from the dim overhead lights, to the torches that instead gave off most of the light.

"Ah, another trainer." One of the people there, dressed in slate jeans and a dull-colored shirt that made her blend into the darkness perfectly, said and stepped forward, "I am to be your first test then, if you can't get past me, then there's no way you're disturbing Roxanne!"

And in the battle that followed, Razzle was indeed matched by the rock Pokemon there, a Geodude. For some reason, he was able to use confusion on the unfortunate rock, but still found himself lying on his back, barely able to breath right from having the wind tackled out of him several times.

When Mipsy resigned herself, returned Tassie and was preparing to carry Razzle out of the gym, the automatic doors swung open again. A figure stood there, and the defeated Ralts turned his head slightly to see whom the newcomer was. He was paralyzed with shock at that point, and managed to squeak out, _"I-it's…_ you_."_


	4. Every Rose has its Thorns

**Chapter 4**

A chuckle came from the boy that slinked into the gym with the stride of a predator on the hunt. The large Grovyle beside him mirrored the sound, and from the gecko it seemed to be more of a sinister hiss. "Long time no see, Razzle. Having fun getting beaten around?" With a burst of hidden endurance, Razzle huffed once and got back to his feet, the purple aura forming around his body the first sign of another confusion attack.

"Razzle, what are you doing? You can't attack him!" Mipsy exclaimed when she saw the aura's glow warp, but it was too late, the psychic blast was headed for the other trainer. But instead of hitting him, his Grovyle jumped in front of the boy and took the blast between the eyes, which had enough force beside it to send him toppling backwards.

Razzle slumped back down to his knees, _"Mipsy, let's go. We don't have time for these two."_ He said, in such a bitter tone that Mipsy started forward, if only to remove him before he did something else he'd regret.

"Kid," the other trainer addressed her. "Were did you get that Ralts?"

"I found him. Route 102." Mipsy had picked up the Pokemon by then, and was calculating what the best means of escape would be. If she ran past him, that would look incredibly strange. Walking past wouldn't really work either, because then the Grovyle-who'd righted himself and now looked furious-might attack. She was stuck.

"Well, I'll leave him to tell you the story." A smile spread across the boy's thin face, and Razzle seemed to growl, "Good-bye Razzle, we'll just see how long _this _trainer lasts you." He then stepped aside, and made a motion that Mipsy could leave.

* * *

Silence reigned supreme until they came to rest in the familiar setting of the Pokemon Center. The smell of the antiseptic atmosphere seemed to revive Mipsy's voice, to the point where she could get out, through gritted teeth, "Razzle, that show could have cost me my trainer's license. That was so out of character, what got into you?" 

The Ralts wouldn't look at her; instead his eyes were hidden under his cap. At first, he didn't look like he was going to answer, it was a few minutes until he said, _"I'm sorry. For more than you know. That was Jason. And he's the only thing that has ever gotten me that angry."_

He lapsed into silence for a while, but not after a long while, he was laughing softly, _"Mipsy, you're the fourth person whose agreed to train me."_ Razzle continued, _"And the only one who has ever managed to teach me to really use confusion. You'd better let Tassie out for this."_ The reminder made the trainer jump, and she followed the advice quickly. The cocoon was still a light purple, which Razzle chuckled to and said with some of his usual mirth, _"Sascoon."_

"Okay Razzle, explain."

_"All right."_ The Ralts sighed heavily, _"You're actually the fourth person to try to train me, but of course I already said that. People can't resist trying their luck on a Ralts, even if it can't use psychic attacks. I warned you when I first started to tag along that I couldn't use confusion, right? Well, you figured it out soon enough._

_"Jason was my first trainer, and was a perfectionist. I wasn't his idea of perfection. He's probably the whole reason I have the confusion problem in the first place, because he always made me practice and practice what I didn't even know. He only trained me for a week until giving up, and releasing me. The next trainer gave up in a matter of one month, and the third trainer only lasted a few days. And then there's you. You haven't even caught me yet Mipsy."_

"Razzle…" Mipsy sighed when he was finished, "I've only known you for a couple of days, and you're not a bad Pokemon. Maybe a little silly at times, but never depressed like this. You're my 'professional Pokemon,' so you don't have a Pokeball yet. Do you want one?"

_"No. I hate Pokeballs. They're like little prisons. It's like, if you go in one…"_

"…You'll never come back?" She guessed. Even Tassie pitched in a sound of agreement, "Oh… darn it Razzle, stop looking at me like that! You're not going to be thrown onto the street, or something to that effect to a lesser dramatic degree."

Her frown dissipated when she saw Razzle double over, and the way he smothered his giggles. "What is it?"

_"Mipsy…"_ Razzle choked out, then his voice was lost to the giggles, _"…you should see your face!"_ When her look grew increasingly blank, the Ralts began to laugh even harder. A sound like slight snuffling came from Tassie, and Mipsy soon found herself chuckling.

Some time later, they finally relaxed, and the trainer had to whip her eyes. "Why were we laughing again?" She asked, "That was quite bipolar of us."

_"I dunno."_ Razzle shrugged.

* * *

"Well Mipsy, I'd have to say that she's a Silcoon. Normally the eyes are what you have to look at, do you see how there are two folds of her cocoon over them?" Professor Birch said thoughtfully as he got as close to the cocoon as his monitor would allow. "I've never seen a Wurmple evolution that shade of purple before… do you mind coming back to the lab and showing her to me in person?" 

Mipsy's hesitation to answer was enough for the Professor, he guffawed good-naturedly, "That's perfectly all right. I'd better tell you… _The Dancing Dragonite_ moved on last night, and they're going to be performing in Slateport in three or so weeks. If you travel north through Rusturf Tunnel, and set out for the Mauville badge, you'd probably make it to Slateport in time to see them." He continued, and the suggestion made the girl wince inside. She didn't really want to see those stuck-ups at _The Dancing Dragonite_ until she had all eight badges to show them.

But then again, she'd get to see Marvin. That might make it worth it. "But isn't the Mauville badge the third one in the league?" She asked, "I couldn't even clear Rustboro's gym today."

"Well, you were trying to do that with only one Pokemon. Try to use Tassie sometime; she'll evolve far quicker that way. If you need another active Pokemon, there are always some people willing to sell them, especially in Rustboro, where all the beginning trainers panic when they haven't trained their Pokemon enough." The Professor was cut off when one of his aides called something out in the background, "Sorry Mipsy, I've got to leave, my aide Oliver just burned himself in the Torchic pen again. Good bye."

She hung up when the screen turned black, and glanced at Razzle, _"We can always give the buying thing a shot."_ He said with a shrug. _"How much money do we have?"_

"Two thousand Pokedollars. That's not a lot." Mipsy answered, and chewed her lip thoughtfully.

* * *

As Professor Birch had hinted at, it wasn't hard to find Pokemon vendors. The first one was quite close to the Pokemon Center, though it only had a small table and a banner to show what it was. The banner read: **"Pokemon for only 500 PD or less!" **And the table looked promising with its small horde of Pokeballs laid across it. It was this table that Mipsy approached, and the man behind it quickly pounced on her with a jolly, "Hello little girl, is there anything I can interest you in?" 

She had to stifle a chuckle when he grinned crookedly, in the man's dark face, his teeth looked comically white, like in the cartoons. "Yes… I would like to purchase a Pokemon." Mipsy said tactfully.

The seller's grin grew even wider; all he saw of Mipsy was another trainer that was desperate for a Pokemon to win against the first gym with, as she only had a Silcoon and a Ralts. "Right, well this row-" he gestured to the Pokeballs on the table's edge, "-have been marked down. The ones in the middle are for full price, which is still a bargain of five hundred PD. Go ahead and look at them all, if you like."

Razzle reached for a Pokeball in the marked down row, and rolled the first one off. In a flash of light, a fairly thin Magicarp began to flop around uselessly. Mipsy didn't even need to consult her Handbook on this one, she just returned it to its ball and sighed. Trying another Pokeball in the same pile, it turned into another Magicarp.

The third and forth ones were from another pile, and again turned out to be Magicarp, and promptly recalled. Mipsy gnawed her lip in frustration, while Razzle looked on and commented, _"This table sure does like its Magicarp."_

And the final Pokemon, for five hundred PD, was a spiked, toothy fish that Mipsy later learned was a Carvanha. Instead of flopping around harmlessly, it bit her shoe. There was no way she was going to buy one of these Pokemon.

The prices of the Pokemon in the later tables that Mipsy and her Pokemon found slowly inched up, until the man with the Zangoose and Seviper told them with a straight face, "Thirty thousand PD, no more haggling." The girl cursed not being rich, as all the Pokemon within her price range were… hopeless.

_"What do you expect?"_ Razzle finally said, _"We're living in an age of inflation and the concept of supply and demand."_

"I know, but there should be some nice one out there…" She shrugged helplessly, "Ah well, serves us right for not training enough. Guys, we'd better go back to Route 104 and train some more."

In their search, somehow Mipsy and her Pokemon had gone around in a complete circle, and were now standing outside an old, mud-brown building that boasted antique stone shingles. An intricate sign was posted on the outside of the fence, which had the name of a trainer's school in curly letters. But that was not what had caught and held Mipsy's attention, it was the older woman that stood inside the fence, waving to get the trio to come closer. She wore a fine dress with several layers of wavy cloth, each layer turning a different shade of peach tinted pink, down to white. Her graying hair had been tied behind a white bonnet and into a bun, and revealed more of her triangular face.

"Looking through the vendors, eh?" She asked when Mipsy approached the fence, though didn't wait for an answer, "How much money do you have?"

And so Mipsy told her. There was a rustle of fabric upon fabric as a Pokeball was drawn from between one layer of cloth; "You may have her for two thousand PD. She's the last one I have to sell…"

She broke off with a thoughtful look, as if she said too much, it would be harmful. Mipsy blinked, puzzled by the offer, as she looked over the Pokeball that she'd been offered. It was green and white. Along with Tassie's ball, it would be Christmas colors.

Once tossed, the ball revealed a squat little Pokemon, who gave off the loud cry of, "Ross-lia!" It looked up at Mipsy, raising two arms ending in bright roses.

"This is Rose." The woman narrated, "She's very… sweet, if you get on her good side."

Mipsy flicked back in her Handbook, and found the exact likeness of the flowery Pokemon. "'A dual type, grass and poison, Roselia are normally found in rose fields like those around Verdanturf Town. A popular Pokemon for herbalists, healthy Roselia give off a very soothing scent. They shoot off poison barbs when their flowers are threatened…' And then it continues on to tell why Roselia are horrible, because they're too small to battle larger foes. Pessimistic handbook."

She bent down to be more at level with the Pokemon, and said, "I don't want your roses. Please don't spike me with poison points. Thank you." And then she scooped the Pokemon up and looked her over, though she didn't know what physical feature would distinguish a healthy Roselia from a sick one. A wonderful aroma wafted from her roses, and Mipsy relaxed slightly, while the rose Pokemon squirmed and glared. "We'll take her." She said woozily, without even consulting Razzle or Tassie, the latter of which quickly gave off a squeak of complaint. The vendor's wide smile was almost foreboding.

* * *

_"Why in the world did you buy a Roselia, of all the Pokemon there?"_ Razzle translated Tassie's demand the second that Rose had been returned to her ball. They sat next to a fountain of a Milotic, water spurting from the stone Pokemon's mouth. 

"Mmm? What Roselia?" She responded blankly.

_"The Roselia… yunno, the one you spent all our money on?"_

"What… I bought her?"

_"Yeah."_ Razzle gave Mipsy a strange look, _"Don't you remember? You were staring at her, she was giving you a death glare, and you said, 'I'll take her!'"_

Mipsy looked down at the new Pokeball nestled in her belt. "No way." She groaned. "No way! This is so not cool!"

Her other Pokemon's gazes were blank, "Don't you know what happened? That Roselia's smell… charmed me. And the woman knew that, so she got all of our money."

_"No wonder she ran off laughing like that. At least Roselia are grass types, so we can win our gym match."_

"Well… let's just see what Rose can do. C'mon guys, let's go back to Route 104."

* * *

The only good thing about Rose was her type, and her strength. She could already use poison sting, which by the Pokemon Handbook was a level nine attack, so most wild Pokemon didn't stand a chance for long. Then, there came the faults. She didn't have wonderful aim, but that was much like Tassie, and forgivable. But then, Rose was also about as cuddly as a Cacnea, with the personality to befit something far larger and more dangerous than herself. 

Absorb soon became a favorite attack, as Rose was forced to lash out in a kick-like fashion with one leg, scraping into her opponents side with roots. She even was talented at making it showy, shaking her roses in the process.

It was now Rose verses a wild Zigzagoon, and Razzle kept moaning about not having popcorn. "Poison sting!" Mipsy was ordering, while the raccoon charged at his opponent. The Roselia twirled away and, lowering her head, caught him on the side with three separate thorns.

The Zigzagoon took off, knocking loose an Oran berry in his haste. Before Mipsy could say anything else, Rose scooped up the berry and was munching it down. "So, shall we go to the gym for a rematch, then?" Mipsy asked her Pokemon. Tassie, who had been laid under a tree to rest, squeaked protest. "Does that mean you want to battle then, Tassie?"

A nod came from the Silcoon, or the closest of an equivalent of a nod that the stiff cocoon could manage. So, Mipsy retrieved her, and they waited, while the only sound that could be heard was coming from Rose. Soon Tassie was set up into a battle with a wild Wurmple, who quickly blasted a thread of sticky string at the cocoon. The problem was, that only made the outer shell harder.

In turn, Tassie got her cocoon to roll, until she was headed for the opposing Wurmple for a tackle attack. Then, it was like watching a slow-motion video, the Wurmple was inching out of the way as fast as she could, and Tassie was following, though neither of them had an advantage in speed. Rose began to laugh.

Tassie suddenly stopped, and the eye that was facing her trainer narrowed. She used string shot, but it was not aimed for the Wurmple, and instead hit its mark. The Silcoon began her snuffling giggles as Rose failed to get the sticky stuff off, instead succeeding in spreading it around, until one arm had been pinned to her side.

_"Should we help her?"_ Razzle asked, the doubt apparent in his voice. The Silcoon said something, and he translated, _"Tassie says that she deserved it. And that she's ready to return to her Pokeball."_ The only thing about Tassie in her new form was that she got tired rather easily, so Mipsy returned the cocoon agreeably before heading over to Rose.

"Lia!" She hissed furiously when her trainer gently began to unwind the string around one of her roses. Mipsy found herself relaxing again, so close to the Roselia. It might have been just the next second, or ten minutes later, but Rose jerked once, and the movement was unexpected enough that Mipsy fell forward, and found herself stuck very close to one of the Pokemon's thorns.

She swallowed, and murmured to Rose, "Relax, will you? I'm your trainer, for goodness sakes… Razzle, now where are you?"

_"Right here."_ The Ralts chimed in. _"Both of you hold still, and I'll help."_ Mipsy could just barely see him on the other side of Rose, and couldn't see if he was using his psychic powers, or just removing the string manually.

"Tassie owes us for this." Mipsy moaned when Rose began to squirm again. The next second, she heard Razzle growl.

_"I'm stuck."_ He reported. _"Now what?"_

"Roselia…" Rose whined.

_"We're going to have to wait for someone else to come by."_ The Ralts continued, _"We must look so ridiculous right now…"_

* * *

And so, Mipsy, Razzle, and Rose were stuck in that position for a long time, before the string hardened and became brittle enough to shatter under enough pressure. By the time that then returned to Rustboro City, it was getting dark, so the trainer suspected that the gym would be closed by then. They returned to the Pokemon Center, where Mipsy let her Pokemon be taken back for a checkup and some food, while she remained with the same group of trainers as there was this morning, and shared a meal with them. 

The Center closed down at around ten o'clock, and Mipsy finally took a look around at the faces of everyone there with her. There was no sign of Jason, or the mysterious girl from before. She sighed, and dozed in her bedroll, thinking that her Pokemon had already fallen asleep. If they had, she soon joined them.


	5. Stranded on Isle Rockola

A/N: Okay, this chapter really took forever. I'm sorry Razzle Bedazzled hasn't been updated since… February.

**Chapter 5 **

"We're going to have three Pokemon each, no time limit." Roxanne intoned, holding one Pokeball at the ready in her pale hand. She had a delicate face, which revealed nothing about the Pokemon she trained. The dress she wore was tight and a dusty gray-blue ending in a white collar. All in all, she looked very professional and serious, the model gym leader. "You will be able to switch out your Pokemon at any time, while mine must remain on the field until defeated."

Now was the moment that Mipsy had been preparing for since she'd accepted a Pokeball and begun to train. It was followed by a battle that she'd gone over with her Pokemon ever since they'd woken up this morning. She held her breath as the referee took to the side of the field and held up two flags, one white and the other gray. He crossed the flags and exclaimed, "May the battle begin!"

Roxanne tossed her Pokeball onto the field, which revealed a stout rock-type that had to push his body forward with both muscular arms, as he didn't have legs. Mipsy tossed her green-and-white Pokeball and Rose entered the fray with a cry and a shake of her showy roses. She had a couple of bruises from battling past the gym trainer, but was otherwise in good shape and perched on a rock as she awaited her first command. The way the Roselia looked around made Mipsy wonder if she could see the Geodude, after all he blended in well with the rocky field that was the arena.

"Start with a tackle!" Roxanne exclaimed. The Geodude obediently followed that command, first balancing his rotund body over his hands and pushing off from the ground with all his strength.

"Rose, look out!" Mipsy cried as she saw the rock Pokemon whizzing through the air towards her Roselia with deadly accuracy. Rose stood her ground, and the attack slammed the breath out of her chest. At the moment that the Geodude was on top of her, Rose kicked at him, raking his solid skin with roots that took the very energy out of him to restore her in an absorb attack.

Roxanne reacted quickly, "Geodude, roll away and use rock throw!" Responding quickly, he tore away from Rose and picked up one of the loose rocks littering the field. He threw it at Rose, who quickly dodged to the side, and twirled out of the way when a second rock was sent her way.

"Rose, use growth." Mipsy ordered. The Roselia cast a glance back at her trainer that could be interpreted as, _are you completely nuts? _And at that split second, the third rock hit her across the head. Another came quickly after that, and knocked her over, the next few only littered around it as Rose was already buried under the first. Her wheeze of pain was muffled, and her trainer watched in horror as the rocks did not move. She was seeing Rose caught under that rock, her delicate frame squashed.

The referee was beginning a countdown to ten when Razzle tugged at Mipsy's jeans. He didn't say anything, just pointed at the rock pile silently. The rock that Rose was stuck under began to move. "Razzle… don't…" Mipsy whispered, thinking that he was psychically pushing the rock away. But then she realized that wasn't possible, as his outline wasn't glowing with a psychic aura.

"…Nine!" Exclaimed the referee, just as the rock was pushed away and one bright rose resurfaced.

Rose pushed herself up with a cry of, "Lia!" She was panting heavily, and even though she was glaring at her trainer, Mipsy could see that she had used growth, as her roses looked like they were slightly bigger.

"Okay Rose, use absorb now!" Mipsy said quickly, before the Geodude could start throwing rocks again. Rose nodded and rushed at the rock, throwing her legs out and landing on top of the rock's cranium. She held her ground as he thrashed and swatted, trying to dislodge her, but the attempts became feeble and he eventually fell still, fainted.

"And Roxanne's Geodude is unable to battle!" The referee called, holding up the white flag in Mipsy's direction.

"Good job Geodude." Roxanne said, recalling the rock-type and taking out another Pokeball. "Your foe is weak, go get her!" she called to the next Pokemon she sent out, which was another Geodude. This one was smaller and had less muscle, Mipsy guessed it was female.

"Alright Rose, use another absorb." Mipsy said, while Roxanne was ordering a tackle attack. Rose and the second Geodude jumped at each other and collided in midair, the Geodude taking some damage when Rose scraped her leg across her side, though the Roselia was knocked away the next second and fell to the ground hard. She didn't get up again.

Mipsy recalled the Roselia to her Pokeball, murmuring a little praise over it. She then turned to Razzle, and the Ralts swallowed. _"Looks like I have to prove that I'm a good professional Pokemon now, eh?" _He said lightly, and jumped into the arena.

"Remember Razzle, be angry," the trainer murmured. "Confusion!" Razzle raised one arm and pointed at the Geodude. For a few seconds, nothing happened. The Geodude was beginning to balance on her hands, to launch a tackle. Razzle grimaced in concentration and remained in the same position. And when the Geodude was sailing through the air, straight for him, his eyes glowed, and the confusion attack hit its mark and sent the unfortunate rock-type back down to earth with a loud crash.

Roxanne was chewing on her lip, "Try a rock throw!" She said to her Pokemon. Three rocks were sent in Razzle's direction, and it appeared he was going to try to psychically stop them. His aura flickered and faded right before the rocks set down on his head.

_"Ow. I'm going to have a headache now," _he told his opponent.

"Use growl Razzle!" Mipsy ordered. Razzle let a startling growl come out of his mouth, louder than Mipsy thought a little guy like him could ever do. His opponent faltered for a moment, and then curled up into a tight ball upon her trainer's order. The Geodude began to roll forward as Razzle started to power up another confusion attack. The confusion came a little quicker this time, and sent the Geodude ricocheting off several large rocks, splitting the last one with a large crack when she finally lost momentum. She didn't twitch from the curled-up position she was still in.

Mipsy let out a breath as Razzle jumped up and down happily. The second Geodude was recalled, and in her place another rock-type was released. This one was tall and ugly, having a body made of purple stone chiseled into the rough shape of a human head. A human head with a very, very big nose, however, as his red snout stuck out as his largest feature. The Nosepass immediately began to turn around in slow circles, trying to face both Razzle, who was due south, and the North Pole at the same time. "Rock throw, Nosepass!" Roxanne said, and the thing stopped turning and faced north, but was grabbing stones and chucking them over its head at random. Most were inaccurate, but Razzle got hit by a few and had to constantly keep jumping to the sides as he tried to dodge the rest and power up his confusion attack again.

The Nosepass was knocked over when the confusion hit his back and let off an annoyed sound as he pushed himself back up and balanced on his small, round feet. It appeared that very little damage was done to him by the attack. "Harden." Roxanne said when Razzle growled at his opponent. The Nosepass shook once and his hard skin turned a darker shade.

"Turn towards the Ralts and hold your position. Use rock tomb." Roxanne ordered. Nosepass turned around and held his head with both hands, shaking slightly. A couple of large rocks burst out of the ground and flew forward, trapping Razzle underneath them. There was a long pause, in which Mipsy called the Ralts' name. Then one of the rocks twitched as Razzle manipulated it with psychic powers to flip off of him. It budged and moved away, but the Ralts couldn't get it to flip onto the Nosepass. Instead, he dropped the rock and aimed the confusion directly at the rock-type. This time the Nosepass was sent flying and landed hard.

The Nosepass used rock tomb one last time, and Razzle sent a confusion attack his way before the Ralts fainted from exhaustion. Mipsy ran up to him and scooped him up before returning to her side of the field. "That was brilliant." She mumbled to the fainted Pokemon.

And now it was Tassie's turn to battle. Mipsy held onto the Pokeball and hesitated for a moment. Before the battle had started, Tassie had confirmed that she wanted to battle, but her trainer was still hesitant to send the cocoon out. She looked up to see that Roxanne, the referee, and the little group of watching trainers were all waiting for her to make a move. "Go, Tassie!" She finally exclaimed, and let the Pokeball sail to the middle of the field.

The Silcoon squeaked as she set eyes upon the Nosepass. Without having to be told, a sticky string shot out from one side of her cocoon and wrapped around the rock-type's legs and loosely around his arms. "Rock throw." Roxanne said, but raised an eyebrow when her Pokemon couldn't move his arms enough to grip a rock and throw it. "Okay then, rock tomb."

"Harden!" Mipsy said before the rocks got the chance to hit the cocoon. Tassie wrapped her cocoon in an extra layer of silky thread, which hardened quickly. She rolled out from under the rock that had trapped her with less damage than she would've taken.

Tassie's eyes drifted upwards, where a few metal support beams had been set into place. She shot another strand of thread upwards and held onto it when it wrapped around one of the beams. Jumping into the air with effort, Tassie swung on this thread and let go when she gained enough momentum, slamming into the Nosepass at the base of his nose on her way down.

"No way." Roxanne said with shock when the rock-type could not get up, as the thread around his legs stuck to the ground. Though he was still able to fight, he was subjected to the ten-second countdown and failed to get back up. It was over.

"The challenger is victorious!" The referee called, holding up the white flag one last time. Roxanne returned her Nosepass and looked pale as Mipsy also returned Tassie and headed for the gym leader.

In Mipsy's arms, Razzle twitched and opened his eyes. _"Did we win?" _He asked blankly.

"Yes, we did," Mipsy answered, and couldn't keep a foolish grin from crossing her face.

* * *

After a good long session in the Pokemon Center, Mipsy and her Pokemon sat together over a modest lunch. Mipsy had just gotten done counting the PD that had come along with the badge that Roxanne had given her. "Half a Rose," she finally said. "A thousand. Plus the TM she gave us should be worth something…" 

_"Well, hopefully that will last you." _Razzle said neutrally.

"Razzle…"

_"No Mipsy, I've made up my mind." _The Ralts said adamantly as he crossed his arms.

He focused his psychic powers on the zipper of Mipsy's backpack, which came undone without much of an effort. _"How long have you had this?" _Razzle continued as a purple Pokeball came out of the pack and rolled to the girl's feet.

"Only for a couple of days," Mipsy murmured, picking up the luxury ball and looking back to Razzle. "Does this mean…"

_"…I told you I made up my mind." _Razzle was grinning by that point. _"Besides, it matches me. …Kinda." _

"At least I can still tell all your Pokeballs apart," she replied, latching the luxury ball onto her belt to see how it looks. Mipsy took the ball back off her belt and pressed the release button. Inside the ball was cushioned with red velvet. "Matches your horn." The trainer teased.

Razzle swallowed and got to his feet, shuffling over in front of Mipsy. He motioned to the ball impatiently and waited while Mipsy shut it and pressed it to his arm. It automatically opened and the Ralts was sucked inside in a red flash that was reflected on the ball's button as it shook and rattled before falling silent.

"Ross." Rose muttered, rolling her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Her trainer asked, unaware that the Roselia was just grumbling to herself. Tassie had drifted off to sleep by that point, and was snoring gently.

Mipsy shrugged when the grass-type waved one rose vaguely and released Razzle out of his Pokeball. _"It's comfortable in there," _he stated blankly. He shook his head once and continued, _"Hey, Mipsy, where are we going next?" _

"We're heading north towards Route 116 and the Rusturf Tunnel. Like Professor Birch said, if we follow this path, then we may get to Slateport in time to see _The Dancing Dragonite _perform," she messed with a lock of her hair idly. "But of course they won't know we're there, since we're going to buy a ticket and watch in the cheap seats like a normal trainer and her Pokemon."

Razzle jumped to his feet, _"So let's go, now!" _He exclaimed and set off for the exit. Mipsy recalled Rose and picked up Tassie, and then she was heading off after him, leaving a couple of empty bowls for the nurse on duty to see to.

* * *

A small split had developed in Tassie's shell that Mipsy noticed when they had left Rustboro City behind. She couldn't help but push at it, and hoped that the cocoon was ready to open and reveal the species of its occupant. Though Professor Birch said that she was a Silcoon, there was still that purple tint to the cocoon that was invariably Cascoon-like. But the cocoon remained intact, and when Mipsy asked about it, Tassie said she didn't know that there was a crack there. 

Route 116, compared to the other routes that they had walked so far, was very short. Mipsy expected that they could make it to Rusturf Tunnel before nightfall. That was ruined completely when Mipsy almost walked into Brendan Birch, heading the opposite direction. "Oh, hullo Mipsy. Heading towards Rusturf Tunnel?" The boy asked.

_"Of course we are," _Razzle answered for her.

Brendan cast a glance at Razzle that was unreadable, before he said to Mipsy, "Well, Rusturf Tunnel has been blocked off… it appears that the wild Whismur went nuts and caused a rockslide." He sighed, "So Mipsy, does this mean you have the first badge?"

She grinned and dug the shining badge out of her backpack and showed it to him in the 'look-what-we-won' fashion. _"'Twas a struggle, a life or death battle for that shining piece of metal. Roxanne was crying when she saw her last Pokemon fall in defeat to our superior battling skills." _Razzle chattered dramatically.

"Really?" Brendan asked.

_"Gullible isn't in the dictionary." _Razzle answered.

"Really?" The boy repeated blankly.

"…Anyways, I think that the tunnel won't be open for a long while. The workers are afraid of causing another Whismur-induced rockslide by using loud equipment."

"That's unfortunate," Mipsy kept her face carefully neutral. This only meant that she and her Pokemon would have a long journey back through Petalburg Forest to the small dock where they could rent a boat and sail off to Dewford Town… and that they wouldn't be seeing _The Dancing Dragonite _perform after all. The acrobats and other skeptical there would have to wait a while longer before seeing Mipsy and whatever she managed to accomplish as a trainer.

"Hey, now, I bet there's a place in Rustboro that lends out flying types to ride on. After all, there's got to be more than one way to get to Dewford Town." Mipsy said suddenly. "I'll see you around Brendan, and we can have our battle later." She didn't want to be rude, but being around the other trainer made her remember that he was her 'friendly rival' and that he'd be expecting a battle out of her sooner rather than later. She couldn't have that, right after a gym match.

And so she, Tassie, and Razzle returned to Rustboro and began to head back for the Pokemon Center. Mipsy only stopped when she felt Razzle tugging on her pant leg. _"You were saying about the rent-a-bird place?" _He was pointing towards a building.

"Huh?" Mipsy got closer to the building and looked inside one window. Inside, there was a small flock of birds such as Pelipper and Swellow that were roosting together all along one wall. "I wasn't serious about that," she said to Razzle, who shrugged.

_"Oh well. Looks like we found our mode of transportation after all." _

* * *

There was something to be said about how graceful and beautiful the flight of birds is in many books and stories… the authors of those kinds of stories probably never had been riding on a Pelipper flying as fast as she could in a panicked frenzy to get to her destination. Nor would they have had to ride on said Pelipper while trying to get a hold on the bird somehow before they get dislodged and crash to the ground. 

Mipsy should have gone with the Swellow that the man had offered to loan her first.

At least this Pelipper was making good time; they had already passed by Petalburg Forest and were now heading south over a wide stretch of sea, watching the small islands come and go rapidly. It was all going fairly well, until a flock of Wingull took to the sky from another, rather large island. They passed by the Pelipper and distracted her, and she lost altitude fast as the smaller birds started to cluster around the larger bird and the girl she was carrying. The Pelipper tried to shake them, and only started to gain altitude again when Mipsy cried out.

The Wingull flock drove them back down again, this time close enough that the Pelipper landed and shook her passenger off. Mipsy followed the bird as she started walking away and spread her wings again, aiming away from the Wingull, and took off without Mipsy. "Wait!" She cried. The Pelipper turned around in midair and looked back at Mipsy, waving at the bird for her to come back. She then looked over to the Wingull, who were setting in on her again. The flock settled in around the Pelipper and began chasing her away from the island, and Mipsy could only watch with growing dismay as she flew off for Dewford Town, leaving the girl there.

_

* * *

"No way," _Razzle said. _"No way! We can't be stuck here!" _

"She didn't come back, so yes, we can be. And we are. Unless you want to take a swim." Mipsy glanced over to the dark water and sighed. "This is Tentacool-infested water anyway, so we'd basically not make it very far."

Tassie gave a little, half-hearted squeak. _"She's right," _Razzle said. _"It's getting dark, so we should tackle this problem in the morning." _

"Lia," Rose insisted.

_"And go to sleep after dinner." _

* * *

The island that they had managed to become stranded on had a small forest in the middle that was teeming with Wingull that generated most, if not all, of the background noise. Mipsy had made their camp as far away from these Wingull as possible, and hoped that they didn't decide to fly over their little makeshift camp. The rest of the island turned out to be a big rock, there was no beach, just a pebbly area where only brave little grass shoots would grow. 

That morning Razzle went off into the forest part to search for berries that they could eat. Mipsy had no clue when the next boat would come roaring past that could possibly help them, so she was trying to conserve their food supply. They only had enough of the food that Mipsy had saved to last for about two meals.

_"Look what I found!" _Razzle came back and exclaimed brightly as he held up a rather large berry that he had to carry with both hands.

"Oh great, that looks good," Mipsy replied, holding out her hand. "Where there any more like that?"

_"Nope. Here, you can hold it!" _Razzle stuffed it into Mipsy's hand, where she realized that it wasn't a berry that he'd found. It was an egg. The shell on the egg was a bright white, with tiny blue specks littering all over it.

"Even better. We can make an omelet," she grinned when the Ralts let off a squeak of dismay. "Nah. I'm kidding Razzle. Now go put it back where you found it, some mama Wingull will be looking for it."

_"She left Eggbert on the ground!" _Razzle replied, taking the egg back and cuddling it. _"So she won't miss him!" _

"Razzle—"

The Ralts ignored her and walked over next to Tassie, where he placed the egg and gently sat on it. She let off a questioning 'oou' sound, and Razzle replied in Ralts tongue. Mipsy finally sighed and turned away from the two of them to face the sea and waited for a boat to pass. Hours passed like this, and no boat, while Razzle and Tassie had fallen asleep. Just when Mipsy was about to doze off too, Rose let off a clattering cry that shocked the other three awake.

_"Oh, someone's hungry," _Razzle said woozily. _"You could've woken Eggbert, Rose! He wouldn't like that." _

"Rose. Lia." Rose retorted hotly, pointing at the egg and then back at the forest, as if to prove her point.

"Okay guys, stop!" Mipsy held up her hand for peace and both Pokemon turned to face her, "Lunch is a good idea. And then we can look out some more for a boat."

_

* * *

"I've decided," _Razzle said after they had finished their little lunch. _"To name this island." _

"Oh?"

_"Yep. We are now sitting on the land of Isle Rockola." _

"And we're stranded on it too." Mipsy added with a sigh.

_"Yes, that too." _Razzle agreed. An awkward silence fell onto the group, when Mipsy tried to draw figures in the dirt to get time to pass. _"I wonder if Eggbert would like to go for a swim…" _Razzle finally said and Mipsy looked up from her doodle of a Wurmple to stare at him.

"That egg would sink like a rock," she replied.

Razzle rolled his eyes, _"It was just a thought." _

_"Hey, I just thought of something else—why don't we send up smoke signals? Someone's bound to see 'em." _

"We might get Dewford Town's fire department down here," Mipsy sighed.

And so they sat around, watching the sea and being bored for the rest of the day. No boats passed by, and the sky was clear of people attempting to fly past on crazy Pelipper. When the time came for Mipsy to light a fire, she was ready to attempt to make smoke signals.

Mipsy sighed when it became dark. The only thing to do was either sit around and stare at the fire, or go to sleep. She slowly drifted off to sleep on her bedroll, leaving the fire to burn down to cinders.

The next time Mipsy opened her eyes, the fire was dead and the sky was bright. Something had woken her up, and she looked around to find that it had been the arrival of a trio of people riding on large, seal-like Pokemon. She yawned and blinked when one of the new arrivals stepped forward. "Hey, you're that kid from before."

Standing right before her was the Ninjask trainer with Jitsu still perched upon her head, though he looked a little bit interested to see this little group. "You know this kid, Kirra?" One of the teens the Ninjask trainer arrived with spoke up. He was tall and wearing a navy shirt over black pants. A bandana tied his flyaway black hair back from his face.

"Yeah," the Ninjask trainer—who must've been Kirra—said. "Mipsy, wasn't it? What're you doing here?"

"I kinda got… stranded," Mipsy answered, and quickly told a condensed version of the Pelipper flight to her and her companions. By that point Razzle and her other Pokemon had woken up and were adding garbled details to what she said about yesterday's day on Isle Rockola. Kirra had raised an eyebrow when Razzle proudly displayed his Wingull egg and proclaimed it to be Eggbert.

"Would you like a lift to Dewford Town?" Kirra finally asked when they were done. Mipsy replied to the affirmative, and the other trainer called, "Frost, c'mon. Side trip."

"Sealeo?" The seal she'd arrived on swam over to her and she jumped onto his back.

Mipsy returned her Pokemon, quickly stuffed her pack full of the few things she'd scattered and secured her bedroll while Kirra whispered something to the other teen. Mipsy caught a few lines of it while she was pondering whether she should keep the Wingull egg or leave it. That was answered for her when Razzle burst out of his Pokeball and put the egg into Mipsy's pack himself before returning to the ball, knowing that his Eggbert was safe. "I'm ready," Mipsy said, startling Kirra in mid-sentence.

"…All right kid, get on," the teen said. Mipsy awkwardly clambered onto Frost's back and shivered when her feet went under the water. The Sealeo began moving before she had settled fully, and she was almost thrown off his back, but his swimming was so gentle that she didn't fall and she sat upright. The ride was almost enjoyable, had it not been for the fact that Mipsy was constantly looking down to see if there were any Tentacool around to sting her.

When Dewford Town was in sight, the Pelipper who'd stranded Mipsy on Isle Rockola flew low to the sea next to them as a sort of escort. They arrived at Dewford Town in the next moment, and Mipsy was clambering over Frost's back and onto the dock. "Thank you," she said to Kirra when the girl patted her Sealeo gently.

"No problem kid," Kirra smirked tightly. "I suppose I'll see you around." She waved once and motioned for Frost to swim back to the island. He did so willingly, and quickly.

"Now you," Mipsy turned to the Pelipper who was sitting on the dock, her head turned to one side in a look of bird innocence. "Why didn't you come back?"

The bird cawed and flapped her wings, and Mipsy sighed as she called Razzle out of his Pokeball. He listened to the Pelipper and finally said to her, _"I don't really understand what she's saying. She's talking too fast." _

Mipsy shrugged, "Alright then. Pelipper, you're free to fly back to the bird house." The Pelipper nodded and took to the skies with a raucous caw and was soon gone as well.

_"How's Eggbert doing?" _Razzle asked curiously. Mipsy sighed and swung her pack around to the ground, before unzipping it and giving him the egg. He examined it for a moment, and then exclaimed, _"You cracked it!" _

"Huh?" Mipsy looked at the egg and saw a small crack in its side. Her eyes widened and she said frantically, "Razzle… it's hatching. The egg is hatching. What're we going to do with a baby Wingull?"

_"We'll be parents!" _Razzle sang. He sat down and placed the egg in his lap, watching it intently.

"Oh my gosh. What can we do with a baby Wingull? I should've _never_ brought it with us. Now we're going to be stuck with it!" Mipsy exclaimed, having a mental breakdown by that point. She was, after all, just ten years old and hadn't a clue in the world how to take care of a baby anything.

_Crack. _The eggshell split on one side and a small black and orange beak peeked out through the hole it had made. The baby seagull continued to work its way out of the egg and eventually Razzle had a small bundle of white feathers sitting in his lap instead of an egg. The baby Wingull shivered pitifully and its beady little black eyes opened for the first time to see Razzle, who he immediately opened his beak to with a demanding caw. _"Aww, the baby's hungry," _the Ralts said with a smile.

"Oh goodness," Mipsy groaned. "What do Wingull eat?"

She crouched down to get a better look at the little bird. He had his eyes shut tightly, all he needed to know was that mommy looked like a white-skinned creature with a green helmet and two red horns. Not counting at all that mommy was male; no, such minor details could be overlooked. His mouth was open and another little caw came from it for food. When Mipsy gently dusted her hand over the Wingull's thin, tiny feathers, he opened his eyes again and set eyes upon the second living creature to ever enter his world. He cawed and held his open mouth towards Mipsy now. "What'd it say?" She asked.

_"_He _just called you his daddy," _Razzle replied. _"Oh Mipsy, we _are _parents!" _

Mipsy groaned again and picked up the baby bird. "We'll see what Nurse Joy says about food for him," she said.

They quickly scanned the small town and picked out the Pokemon Center from the other buildings. Mipsy took the baby bird into the building without a second thought and approached the nurse when she felt the bird inch closer to her chest and shudder. He kept his eyes tightly shut and continued to snuggle as close to Mipsy's chest as possible while she had a quick conversation with the nurse on duty. "I'm sure your Wingull will be able to eat berries if they're already pre-mashed. Pecha berries should be the first thing he eats, after all we don't want him to have to digest something spicy such as a Cheri berry for his first meal. Feed him until he stops opening his mouth, that means he's full."

She told Mipsy a lot more, and she knew that they would have to take a few days off just to take care of this baby Wingull in his first days of life, just to make sure he got fed every time he was hungry. After making sure the baby bird was secure from being stolen—Mipsy captured him without difficulty—she handed a Pecha berry to Razzle and smiled. "You're in charge of feeding him today."

_"Okay." _Razzle offered the whole berry to the bird.

"No, no Razzle, you have to mash it up first."

The Ralts blinked. _"Are you trying to tell me I have to chew it first?" _He asked incredulously.

Mipsy nodded, and he glanced at the berry and then the baby Wingull with growing realization. "Come over here, I doubt anyone will see you," she led him into the corner of the room, while the Wingull continued to cry for food weakly. "Good luck."

_"Thanks," _Razzle replied dryly. _"You get to do this tomorrow." _

"I know," Mipsy sighed. She walked over to the resting area and let out Rose and Tassie. Both Pokemon looked around at the Pokemon Center with relief while their trainer filled them in on what they'd missed with the Wingull egg. Rose looked positively horrified when Mipsy explained what Razzle was attempting to do with the Pecha berry and got to her feet to go stomp over to the Ralts. Mipsy followed hesitantly and Tassie rolled after them.

_"Hey. I keep swallowing by accident," _Razzle stated miserably as he swung the half-eaten Pecha berry and the Wingull continued cawing for food. Rose pushed him out of the way and kneeled in front of the baby bird, bringing one of her roses up to his beak. She started talking to Razzle as the Wingull stopped making pitiful sounds and nuzzled into the flower.

_"Rose says that she'll feed the Wingull," _Razzle translated. _"She's feeding him the nectar from her roses, which she says will be better for him… and I'm disgusting for trying to feed him… and we're both irresponsible parents. Anything else you want to get off your back Rose?" _

"Lia," Rose waved her other rose vaguely as the Wingull stopped and slumped backwards, cawing with contentment. "Roselia."

_"Oh, okay. Whatever." _Razzle shrugged, _"Looks like you know more about baby birds than me. Too bad I'm his mom and you're not." _

Rose threw him the weirdest glance and stroked the baby bird's feathers gently with one rose. He had already fallen asleep under her care. "Ross-lia."

_"Rose says she wants to keep baby Wingull with her," _Razzle translated.

"That's alright with me," Mipsy said gratefully. "Thanks Rose."

_"Don't mention it," _Razzle murmured after she'd waved one rose at Mipsy.

Tassie let out an 'oou' sound and bumped against her trainer's leg. She exclaimed something brightly. Razzle laughed at whatever she was saying, which seemed to make her happy. _"Tassie thought of a name for him," _Razzle finally said to Mipsy.

"Well, what is it?"

_"It's perfect. Guess," _he said.

"…He's not still Eggbert, is he?" Mipsy asked.

_"Nope. He's not Eggbert anymore…"_


	6. Relying on a Flashlight

**Chapter 6 **

Mipsy was secretly glad that baby Wingull had come along when he did. He had halted the group's progress through Hoenn, which gave them time to take a deep breath—and train. If they kept going through Dewford Town at their former pace, Mipsy knew she wouldn't have the badge from the fighting gym there. She still didn't—Dewford's gym leader was a man named Brawly, whom she'd heard trained once with a man who was currently in the Elite Four of another region. Her Pokemon, in her opinion, where in no way ready for the second gym… they'd only won through the first by luck.

So instead Mipsy got to enjoy Dewford Town for the place it was: a beautiful town with a constant sea breeze blowing through, it was sleepy, but not enough to be completely dull. Plus, she'd managed to have fun trying out some different things.

On the first day, she'd rented a room in the Pokemon Center, since they'd be staying there for a while. The room was plain, with a small bed sporting thin white sheets and a small television that only had seven channels—news, news, news, Pokemon channel, news, game show, more news—which Mipsy got bored with very quickly. There was also a pair of small wooden chairs and a wooden chest at the foot of the bed that was designated for placing clothes in, since the closet was so small. Mipsy didn't see much of a need to unpack her clothes and things, since she carried them on her back most of the time anyway… but the Pokemon Handbook still found its way into the chest.

Mipsy had left Rose and the baby Wingull in the room with their Pokeballs as she took Razzle and Tassie out for some errand running. First thing they needed was supplies, which was easier said than done. Since Dewford Town didn't have a running Pokemart, getting supplies meant bartering with the locals, who obviously didn't want to part with anything by the way they hiked their prices up. They spent the rest of the day haggling for items, and returned to their room that evening to find Rose with the baby Wingull in her lap, sitting on a chair, watching television. It appeared Rose knew how to used a remote, and turned into a regular couch Roselia.

The second day, Mipsy called Professor Birch and reported that they'd made it, also explaining about the baby Wingull and Isle Rockola. Apparently he was getting nervous about her, and she was scolded lightly for waiting until the second day she was there to call.

After that, the rest of the day went by like a blur, with Mipsy trying her hand at fishing after a nice old man had offered her a pretty beaten up rod. It was safe to say that she spent half of the time staring at the fisherman next to her and wondering how he could do this for a living. She only caught one Magicarp that day.

It was early morning when Mipsy woke up; counting off the start of the third day they'd spent in Dewford. Rose was already up, feeding the baby Wingull with nectar again. She'd demanded a lot of berries to keep her nectar supply up, and was currently finishing one off, while her eyes remained half-open. The girl carefully got out of bed, succeeding in not bumping Tassie or Razzle, and shuffled over to the other two. "Good morning Rose," she whispered with a yawn.

Rose nodded in reply, just as the Wingull was finished, and cawed as he waddled over to Mipsy, clambering onto her lap with a contented expression. He was soon out like a light. The Roselia watched this with an unreadable expression; with a yawn she rested her head against the chair's back. She also fell back to sleep, leaving Mipsy the only one awake. She stroked the baby Wingull's thin layer of down feathers, while he didn't do so much as stir. The Wingull had only been out of his shell for two full days and she could already tell that he was getting slightly bigger. It would be at least a month before he would been grown enough to participate in battles, but there was no need to rush that, after all she'd heard that the trip from Dewford Town to Slateport over boat—she was taking a boat this time, no ifs or buts about it—was fairly long with little to do but sit around and contemplate one's navel.

Mipsy lost track of the time she sat there, but it couldn't have been long before Razzle woke up. And when Razzle woke up, everyone woke up, that was just how it went… _"Good morning world!" _Exclaimed the Ralts with no clue what so ever that he was startling the rest of his teammates out of their sleep. _"Never fear, for Razzle is awake!" _

The Ralts was suddenly the victim of some very dirty looks from Tassie, who squeaked angrily, and Rose—whose death glare seemed enough to make paint curl, but wasn't enough to even faze the cheerfully awake Ralts. It was a good thing that normally Razzle didn't wake up fully until after breakfast, to avoid situations like this.

Baby Wingull cawed and Razzle grinned foolishly. "Hey Razzle," Mipsy finally said. "Are you going to tell me what baby Wingull's name is today?"

_"Guess," _Razzle replied.

Mipsy sighed. "You know I'm not good at this… why can't you just tell me?"

Razzle just continued to grin and shuffled over to her and the Wingull. _"How's my baby doing, huh?" _He gently rubbed the Wingull's head, while Rose berated him in her own language, or at least it sounded like such to Mipsy's unaided ears. Mipsy got up when Razzle picked up baby Wingull and headed over to the bed, where she sat down next to Tassie.

The cocoon squeaked and they both watched like spectators as the other two Pokemon argued back and forth for a couple of minutes, before the baby Wingull stopped them, as he was getting distressed at hearing his mother and… food source fighting. After that, their day officially began, well, not exactly, Mipsy had to make her Pokemon wait for her to take a shower first. That was another wonderful thing about renting a room in the Center—hot water.

When she was ready, she left Rose and the Wingull with their Pokeballs in the room and a massive pile of berries was left for the Roselia to eat on the chair while she dozed off. The first thing Mipsy heard from the nurse on duty today was, "Are you Mipsy Bedazzlement?"

She flinched inwardly at the mention of her last name, but nodded, "Yes, that's me. Why?"

"You have a package," the nurse produced a small box and offered it to her. "A Pelipper flew in with it last night."

Mipsy grinned, "Thanks," she read the label on it as she sat down on one of the couches, next to a skinny trainer who was still half-asleep and whose glasses were slowly slipping down his nose. As soon as her bottom came to rest on the couch, she'd already torn into the box, destroying it in the process, and brought out a… Pokedex!

"Yes, it's finally here," she said and flipped it open. A computer voice came on and said, in a fairly flat voice:

_"I am a Pokedex licensed to Pokemon trainer Mipsy Bedazzlement. Please enter your command." _

"Uhh…" Mipsy thought for a moment as she found a small flashing red light at the top of the box. She pointed it at Tassie and the screen lit up with a picture of a Cascoon.

_"Cascoon, the Cocoon Pokemon. This Pokemon is mostly immobile, though it can still roll if pitted in a battle. It feels little pain past its silk shell." _

Then, the Pokedex screen changed to a different picture. _"Silcoon, the Cocoon Pokemon. Upon reaching this stage of evolution, it eats nothing but the morning dew that condenses on its shell at night." _

"So which one is she?" Mipsy asked the Pokedex, annoyed.

_"Error: invalid command." _

The girl sighed and wondered what else the computer could do. "Uhh… show stats," she commanded, still having it pointed to Tassie. The cocoon was looking on with interest gleaming in her eyes. It took a while, but the Pokedex flashed to a new display, this time showing assorted statistics spread across the screen. The one Mipsy was looking for was her level, which it displayed near the top; Tassie was level nine, as she guessed. She scanned the other stats quickly—they were all fairly poor, excepting her defense. It also listed her four attacks: tackle, string shot, poison sting, and harden.

_"Hey, will you point that thing at me next?" _Razzle was looking at it over her shoulder, and though he didn't understand what it said, he wanted Mipsy to be in awe over him too.

"Tassie, you're going to evolve soon," Mipsy said to the cocoon, who squeaked in reply. She then pointed the Pokedex at Razzle, repeating, "Show stats."

She then lapsed into silence while staring at the screen. _"Well?" _Razzle finally asked,_ "How awesome is it?" _

Mipsy was making faces at the screen, causing him to start to worry. "You're level ten," she finally said slowly. "But the only attack it has listed for you is growl." She took a bite of her toast, which had grown cool by then.

"Show stats," she commanded the machine again. After a moment, it reset, and her frown only deepened. "To this thing, you don't know confusion." She said to the Ralts.

Razzle would've been frowning too, had he not had his mouth full at the time. _"Then there's one thing we have to do. Go train." _

* * *

"Will you tell me the Wingull's name now, Razzle?" Mipsy asked. They were sitting on the beach, watching the water as it surged forward and just as quickly returned to sea, dragging an unfortunate Corphish with it. Clouds were forming up in the sky and the air around them was chilly, but not completely unpleasant yet. She thought that the breeze and the view of the water from there would be enough to help her catch him off guard, but apparently not. 

_"Guess," _he replied. Tassie let off the equivalent of a Cascoon (or Silcoon…) giggle.

Mipsy sighed and the three of them lapsed back into silence. She was slightly startled when Tassie rolled closer to her side as a more sheer blast of wind passed by, but placed her hand on the cocoon's side and was really surprised to find that the surface was hot to the touch. She would've removed her hand from the cocoon, but she was shivering and the warmth was welcome.

"So, where do you think we can go and train here?" Mipsy asked, "We're kinda stuck on an island, yunno."

_"There was that cave…?" _Razzle offered.

"But I don't want to go in the cave… it'll be all dark, and damp, and… and… dark," she said, shivering again, but this time not from the cold.

The Ralts looked at her out of the corner of his eye, _"Not afraid, are you?" _He asked in a teasing manner, making her exceedingly more nervous.

"N-no, of course not!"

_"Then let's go!" _Razzle leaped to his feet and shuffled in the direction of the cave. Mipsy sighed and unzipped her backpack, rummaging in there for a flashlight, which she unearthed after pushing everything else aside in the pack. She got up as well and groaned as she lifted the pack onto her back.

"Remind me not to buy so much the next time we need supplies," Mipsy said to Tassie, who was awaiting being picked up by her trainer. The Sascoon squeaked brightly. Mipsy scooped up the cocoon, then said immediately: "You don't mind staying in your Pokeball for a while, do you Tassie?"

Tassie looked a little disappointed, but returned to her Pokeball without a fight. Now she was left to trudge after Razzle, who'd made considerable distance ahead. She cupped her hands and yelled, "Hey Razzle, wait for me!"

* * *

Somewhere in the distance, a Zubat let off a shriek that reverberated off the walls, when it reached Mipsy's ears it was nothing more that an eerie hum. The girl was visibly shaking, but at least the cover of darkness in this cave served one purpose—the only way either Razzle or Tassie could've told that their trainer was nervous would be to watch how the flashlight beam bounced and twitched, or by the way Mipsy was humming the Hoenn Nation Anthem backwards. 

A rivulet passed by the slope that the girl and her Pokemon were using, the calm sound of trickling water was lost to their ears, however, by the louder voice of the rushing water it was heading for. Mipsy had to admit to herself, the cave wasn't as she thought it was—excepting the dark, and the weird noises, and perhaps the faraway dripping sound of stalactites—at least it wasn't musty, though the air had a certain undisturbed quality, it wasn't very fresh, and the flashlight beam illuminated a thin curtain of dust hanging suspending in the air in front of them.

"Where are all the Pokemon?" Mipsy asked the Ralts shuffling next to her. They'd heard many signs that Pokemon inhabited this cave, but hadn't seen any.

_"Hiding. Duh," _he answered.

The slope downwards became steeper and Tassie's rolling was outmatching the pace of her companions, Mipsy started rushing after her when she rounded a bend and disappeared behind an outcropping of rock. She had to stop very suddenly when Tassie came back in sight, she had stopped rolling. But what had stopped her was a stout Pokemon who was looked back at Tassie over one shoulder, his glowing blue eyes distant and uninterested.

Mipsy could see both the strange Pokemon and the position that he and Tassie were in, because of a split in the roof up above them that allowed a small ray of light through. The Sascoon was lucky that she had something to stop her; right in front of them was a fast-moving stream that swerved around a bend a short distance to the left. She slowly rolled away from the other Pokemon and back to Mipsy's side, where she looked at the water with as nervous an expression as a pair of eyes and motionless cocoon could make.

The trainer dug into her back pocket and fished out the Pokedex, pointing it at the Pokemon, who had turned his head back to the stream and was nonchalantly drinking from it. _"Lairon, the iron armor Pokemon. Lairon are common in mountains and caves containing large amounts of iron ore. Miners often look for them when exploring new mines." _

_Lairon, huh? Looks really strong. _She thought, ordering the machine to show his stats. Most showed up as question marks, which was odd… but one of the most important did make an appearance. Level: forty. With that information, she turned pale, though the Lairon could've cared less about her and her Pokemon.

But the metal-clad Pokemon suddenly looked up and grunted. He turned away from the stream awkwardly and ran off, each step sounding like a stomp from the weight of his body. Soon, the Lairon had disappeared from sight, covered by a cloak of darkness.

A few moments later, a flashlight beam appeared on the other side of the stream, followed by a man who was impressively tall, even from a distance. His long face was turned in a frown, which increased as he spotted Mipsy and her Pokemon, and he called to them, "Hey, you three! Have you seen a Lairon anywhere nearby?"

_"You just missed 'im!" _Razzle said, pointing, _"He went that-a-way." _

"Thanks," the man put one heavy boot into the stream and faltered for a moment as the current attempted to thrust him along. With his long strides, it only took him three steps to cross the stream, and then he was really looming over the trio.

"Was that your Lairon?" Mipsy asked.

The man nodded, "Yes. And if you'll follow me, I'll explain why he's loose."

* * *

"Granite Cave was the place I found Lairon, back a few years now. Unfortunately, I didn't catch him when I was a rookie like you, uhh…" 

"Mipsy," she said, keeping her voice carefully neutral about being called a rookie. Of course it was the truth, but it still rankled that she was not up to par with this man, or any other of his ability level. She didn't know how long he'd been training his Lairon—who surprisingly hadn't been nicknamed—but knew it had to have been for a while, years, like he'd said.

"Ah. Since we're exchanging names, I'm Edward…" they would've exchanged a handshake, but they were running now, both Tassie and Razzle back in their Pokeballs. "But anyways, Lairon hasn't known me for very long, and when we returned here… he ran away. The bugger won't say a thing to me and keeps running when I'm close. You see, my plan was to train him up to becoming an Aggron. I even told him that. And used up all my vacation leave from work to be able to stay here for a few weeks."

Edward sighed. "So, what brings you to this cave, Mipsy?"

"Well, I wanted to train here. But the only Pokemon I've found was your Lairon," she answered.

"Oh, really," he slowed his pace down, which was a relief for Mipsy, seeing as he could cover more ground than her with each step. His flashlight beam turned upward, where a few Zubat were clinging to the ceiling. The light didn't faze them, since they didn't exactly have eyes, but Mipsy guessed that they were sleeping. "The rest of the Pokemon here blend very well with the surroundings, so you'll have a harder time finding them. So I suppose you'll be going off now to battle?"

He sounded like he wanted her to go off and do that, somehow Mipsy could tell. Perhaps he just wanted to find his Lairon on his own, so she nodded and said, "Yes, that's right. Good luck catching your Lairon, Edward."

"Thank you," Edward continued running on in the cave, while Mipsy stopped and doubled over, panting.

When she'd regained her breath, she let Razzle and Tassie out of their balls again and grinned. "I think I've found somethings to battle," she said, aiming her flashlight beam upwards.

_"Hey, were did that dude go?" _Razzle asked as his eyes followed the trail of light and he nodded just slightly.

"He's gone off and left us to train," she replied, not really thinking much of it.

_"Oh, good. I didn't like him,"_ the Ralts said bluntly. Tassie added to that with a squeak.

She arched an eyebrow at him, but of course the expression was lost since the flashlight was pointed away from her face. "Well anyway, he's gone, and we can battle these Zubat," then a new thought struck her: "But first we've gotta get them down."

_"That's no problem!" _Razzle said, back with his normal good cheer, and lifted both his arms. After a second, one of the Zubat detached from the ceiling, and it only took another second before it started flapping wildly against the anti-gravity pose it'd been in. It screeched, breaking out of the psychic hold, and began flapping in circles, flashing in and out of the beam of light while Mipsy tried to aim it at it's path. The other two Zubat appeared troubled by their fellow's sudden outburst of noise; by the way they fanned their wings open and closed and had their mouths open. Mipsy steadied the light then, ignoring Razzle's grunt of annoyance as the bat flashed into darkness and stayed their, while she continued to look up at the two Zubat, she drew her hand back into the pocket of her backpack and gripped one of the marble-sized Pokeballs there.

Mipsy didn't really want to capture a Zubat—being nocturnal creatures, the bats would be at a disadvantage in bright sunlight, being so used to sleeping during the light hours and going out after dark. But they were outnumbered, and if she needed to capture one to even the score, she would. "Okay Tassie, string shot!" She said, now moving the beam of light until it found the bat again, who wasn't flying so fast anymore.

A strand of sticky string fired from one side of Tassie's cocoon and missed its target, gluing onto the ceiling instead. At that instant, the other two bats swooped down, heading straight for Mipsy, and were deflected by a psychic shock. _"I wish you could've brought two light-makers," _Razzle commented to her. The only thing that verified the second and third Zubat's places were the sounds of their wing beats, which were at close enough range that the Ralts could shoot off a psychic wave and have a chance of hitting them.

Tassie had managed to wrap one strand of silk around the first Zubat's middle and was still holding onto the thread as the bat pulled against it. She was slowly being dragged in the direction the bat was attempting to go, until it gave up on that strategy and stopped flapping its wings. Immediately, it plummeted, and using echolocation, it snapped its wings open right before it hit the ground and flew back at Tassie. The Sascoon let go of the first strand of silk and fired another one that got entangled in one of the bat's wings, successfully grounding it.

Mipsy turned the light away from Tassie and found the other Zubat that Razzle was attempting to fight. He used a confusion attack when the light illuminated his target and stunned it for a moment, causing it to loose several feet in altitude. It screeched once and flapped away from them, apparently giving up. However, the other one was not going without a fight. While Razzle was vulnerable after that last attack, it dove towards him and bit down on one of his arms.

_"Ow!" _Razzle cried, loosing all pride and wailing as he flailed his arm in an attempt to dislodge it. Mipsy frowned and expanded the Pokeball in her hand.

"Hold still Razzle!" She said to him, and yet he managed to not hear her and continue to flail. She sighed and tossed the ball anyway, not without some reluctance, and managed to hit Razzle over the head instead of the Zubat.

_"Hey! Watch were you're throwing those things," _the Ralts complained.

Mipsy sighed, "If you would stop moving your arm, I might have a better shot," she said. She reached into her backpack and took out another Pokeball, this time with a clearer shot as Razzle turned his arm towards her and kept it moderately still. The ball's aim was true and the bat was sucked inside in a flash of red light.

The ball rocked back and forth, while Razzle jumped away from it, the button flashing quickly, until the red portion of the Pokeball shattered into thin shards of plastic and the Zubat was back and arrowing towards the Ralts. It was only stopped from latching onto him again by a strand of white silk, which it broke free of before it could become a hindrance. Mipsy's eyes narrowed—this Zubat was strong. All uncertainty she'd felt before about capturing it was gone; in its place was determination that it was going to become her Pokemon—her fifth. That would leave only one more slot open before she would have a full team.

Tassie squeaked with annoyance and fired a different attack at it, this time silvery poison pins. The bat, being a poison type, didn't take much damage from the few that dotted its chest, yet it still screeched in annoyance at the small pinpricks of pain. Razzle took that opportunity to use a confusion attack on it. Even though the bat apparently had enough, it still folded in its wings and narrowed the gap between it and the Ralts… just to be struck by another Pokeball. This time, the ball rolled wildly as the bat inside struggled for freedom. The ball won against it this time, and it finally fell still.

"Phew," Mipsy said, wiping her brow. She walked over and scooped up the ball containing the Zubat first and hooked it onto her belt next to the luxury ball. Then she grasped the other Pokeball that she'd tossed first, leaving the shattered one where it lay; there was no more use for it.

She scanned the area with her flashlight beam, looking for the Zubat that Tassie had first been battling. It was nowhere in sight, perhaps it had fled as well. "Looks like we're good," she finally said when she returned to her two Pokemon. Razzle leaned his head against her leg, breathing heavily.

_"That attack took a lot out of me," _he said.

Tassie was completely silent. When Mipsy turned the light onto her, she found that the cocoon's eyeholes were shut and that the cocoon itself was being pushed at from the inside, extending a crack along the tough silk. A white flash erupted from the crack, allowing a winged form to emerge. The whole process took less than a couple of seconds, not allowing Mipsy to have enough time to make out the shape of the wings or body before her evolutionary light died down. Tassie had become a…

…Well, Mipsy wouldn't know, because at that moment her flashlight had decided to die. She hit the head of the flashlight in her hand, but it refused to come back on. "Tassie, please say something," she requested.

"Oou?" She answered.

"Uhh… something else. Try your name."

"Oou?" Tassie repeated, sounding confused.

"How about you try saying my name," Mipsy pestered.

Stubbornly, Tassie repeated: "Oou."

Razzle finally interrupted them. _"Mipsy, can't you get your light-maker to work?"_

"Uhh… no. I think its batteries are shot," she said. "And of course this would be a good time to add that I don't have any spares of the really big ones that this flashlight uses." She hit it against her palm again.

Tassie let out a squeak and her trainer could hear the sound of her wings as she circled, trying to find them in the dark. _"Hey look, light," _the Ralts suddenly said. He was right; a beacon of light came from the left, heading their way. Mipsy was about to call out when she heard a familiar voice. It was Edward and apparently he was not alone.

"…very weak Pokemon. The only one worth stealing in the lot of them was the Ralts," Edward had been saying. Mipsy stifled a gasp of shock. So he was sizing up her Pokemon that whole time?

"Well, where is she, then?" Another voice answered.

"I left her in this cavern somewhere…"

Mipsy grasped Razzle's arm and slowly began to back step away from the other group. She only hoped that Tassie would be able to find a hiding place too in the darkness, though the Dustox or Beautifly (…Dustfly?) was okay just flying in place above their heads if she could flap more quietly. Her back hit cold stone and Mipsy let go of her Ralts to feel along the side of the stone—it was solid. They'd come to rest on the wall.

"Razzle," she hissed between her teeth. "They're looking for us. And we can't follow their light and leave Tassie here."

She'd been fiddling with the head of the flashlight again nervously, knowing that if it hadn't died when it did, then they'd already be found. Unfortunately, the flashlight responded to the small turns of the metal head, and with a small _dink_, the bulb again flashed to life, illuminating both her, Razzle, and the side of the cave. Mipsy still couldn't see the other group, but knew from their exclamations of surprised they'd seen her.

Turning the beam of her flashlight into their eyes, Mipsy made a run for it, calling, "Razzle, Tassie, c'mon!"

She caught a glimpse of the group, Edward and two other people, before she had to turn away to see where she was headed. Edward was still wearing his same drab hiking clothes but from his companions she caught a glimpse of red. Hurried footsteps followed her, as did the sound of flapping wings—thankfully, Tassie was following her lead. But as she looked over her shoulder, Razzle was not in sight.

_"I can't… run as fast… as you…" _The Ralts panted from somewhere behind her. She made a split-second decision and returned him to his luxury ball, guessing his position more than knowing it. With Razzle safe in his ball, it was only her and Tassie left to outrun their pursuers, with the hopes that they hadn't sent out Pokemon to assist them.

Her flashlight reflected off a trickle of water to the right. The stream! She knew that at least she was heading the right way for the exit. While she was glancing to the right, a flicker of color went by her. Mipsy looked ahead to see the back of a Beautifly taking the lead. "Tassie!" she cried. The Beautifly looked back at her over her wing and squeaked.

The stream was at its full width and speed when Mipsy heard the first barking sounds. It appeared that her pursuers had given up trying to catch her without help. Two Mightyena were soon on her heels, the overhead light coming from the crack over the stream illuminating their shaggy black pelts.

Tassie swooped down at their muzzles, becoming an annoyance when her wings slapped them. She dive-bombed the duo twice more before they broke away from chasing the human and followed her instead. Seeing this, the Beautifly flew above the stream and stopped, hovering above it. The two dogs jumped at her and missed when she nimbly ducked, and they went splashing down the stream.

Mipsy had stopped running for a moment to watch this, which was a big mistake as her legs throbbed in reminder that she had been dashing around with a backpack too heavy all day. Thus she could see Tassie panting heavily after this exercise, not used to using her wings yet and perhaps had been a little tired to start with after her evolution. The Beautifly landed on the outcropping of rock next to the stream, fanning her wings. "Tassie, return," her trainer said, "You've had enough excitement for one day." She thought she heard Tassie squeak in gratitude as she disappeared into her Pokeball in a flash of red.

By then, the gap between her and the others was very narrow; she could hear their boots pounding on the stone behind her. She took off again, heading up the slope, splashing through the rivulet, and back up to flat ground. Her lungs burned and so did her legs, which threatened to give out at any time. But that wasn't what she was thinking about when she exited the cavern with three men directly behind her.

She wasn't exactly expecting the five people wearing strict navy clothing, embossed with the words "Dewford Police Force" in green. They were so close to the mouth of the cave that Mipsy found herself face-to-face with the man in front. He took a step back and glanced over her, "Are you Mipsy Bedazzlement?"


	7. Falsehoods Part I

**Chapter 7 **

Mipsy slowly held her hands up. "Y-yes?" She stammered. She could hear a shuffling behind her, the sound of footsteps heading in the opposite direction told of Edward and his group's retreat.

The police officer in front motioned with his hand and two of his fellows stepped forward. She flinched when they passed by her, expecting them to grab her arms and use those threatening handcuffs dangling from their belts. That didn't happen. A quick glance over her shoulder showed that they were following into Granite Cave.

"You can relax," she jumped when the man who seemed to be the head policeman spoke up again.

* * *

At Dewford Police Station, Chief Johnson—as he introduced himself—sat Mipsy down in front of his desk. He pulled a familiar-looking object from a drawer. "Let's she the one you have," he murmured, placing the red-colored machine on a stack of papers between them.

Mipsy reached into her back pocket and brought out her Pokedex. Placing it next to the other, she could tell that the one she had was larger. Johnson opened them both and—pressing the sequence upside-down—caused the two to chime:

_"I am a Pokedex owned by trainer Mipsy Bedazzlement," _though one of them added a 'C' for her middle name. Each displayed the same picture of her for a moment, before hers switched to a black screen and the other displayed a black background with white letters that spelled out: **Pokemon owned: 5**.

"You seen," Johnson continued, tapping the smaller machine. "Someone turned this one in today. It was a good thing it was brought to our attention now, because it's illegal to have two."

The girl had reached over and picked up the other machine, her eyebrows knitted together. "Why?" She questioned.

"Well," he cleared his throat for a second's pause to think. "Because. A Pokedex represents a trainer's account. With two, a single person can get two times the privileges of a truthful trainer, i.e. the ability to carry around twelve Pokemon, two accounts to charge money to, and other things…

"So, we're going to keep one of these, and you can take the other. I suggest you keep the one you're holding, it looks like a newer model," he finished, and his lips turned up into a half smile. It was the first time he'd actually smiled, Mipsy noted.

She pocketed the smaller Pokedex without much thought. "Sounds good," she said. "But…"

"Hmm?"

"How'd you know where to find me?" She spluttered, and felt heat rise to her cheeks.

Chief Johnson took her old Pokedex and tapped its underside. "Tracking device."

"Oh. Okay. Well, uh, thanks," the girl said awkwardly, stepping back towards the door. She would muse over having a tracking device in the machine in her pocket later.

The police station was out of the way of the market, Gym, and Pokemon Center—Mipsy hadn't paid much attention to the building that was not abnormally tall nor colored strangely. After leaving it behind, she didn't have a hard time finding the Center, which was a bright point against the darkening sky. Stormy gray clouds swirled around; they spread out across the horizon, casting an odd darkness to the island while it was still early afternoon.

Mipsy entered the Center accompanied by a gust of wind that set her wavy brown locks into disarray. She was still shaking herself out when she came to the front desk, where the nurse flashed her a fake smile that was little more than a grimace. Perhaps her shift was just about to end. "I'd like to have my Pokemon healed, please," the girl stated to her, placing her three balls on the counter between them.

Tassie would probably be sleeping for a while, after her evolution and flying around on her new wings. She didn't know about Razzle, because how much damage could that Zubat's leech life have done? And as for the—as of yet unnamed—Zubat, she needed to get to know it a little better. There hadn't been enough time to talk to it before dashing out of Granite Cave.

As the nurse turned away, Mipsy headed to the telephones. There was someone she needed to talk to, again. She dialed the number to the lab from memory, and waited for the familiar face of the Professor to show up on the screen. Yet it was just an aide that answered, she didn't recognize him from the limited number of aides she knew. "Here to report that you've made it to Dewford?" He drawled.

"No. I need to speak to Professor Birch, is he there?"

"He isn't here. He's off searching for Pokemon again," the aide said, shaking his head and murmuring something else indistinctly. "Maybe you should try back later."

Mipsy nodded and the screen went blank. "Well darn it," she murmured, frowning. She returned to her room slowly, a throb coming back to her legs in full force now that her attentions were not completely devoted to the shock of being taken into the police station. Rose and the baby Wingull were both asleep with the television still on when she opened the door, though the Roselia was quickly awake by the time her trainer had taken a couple steps in the room.

"Lia, rose?" She muttered, smothering a yawn with one rose.

"I'm back early," the girl said softly, collapsing onto the nearest chair. Rose nodded with a huff, while baby Wingull woke with a trill and his eyes seemed to light up upon seeing his 'daddy.' He cawed happily.

Rose stated something, raising one of her roses. The question was easy enough to guess, she wanted to know what happened. Mipsy felt a surge of guilt as she looked at the Roselia, after all, Rose was the one Pokemon that always seemed… unhappy, and she was being left behind in the Center to take care of the baby Wingull. Rose practically spoke English when expressing her feelings for her trainer, especially when they'd first met, which hadn't been too long ago. The trainer Mipsy had bought the Roselia from had probably been much more experienced in… everything. That's where she was sure Rose got most of her impatience for her trainer's shortcomings. Or maybe she was just naturally an impatient Pokemon, and Mipsy was just imagining the rest.

Thus, she felt a little embarrassed to repeat the story of what happened to the Pokemon, but she had to. If she wanted Rose's trust, she had to tell her the truth, because Razzle or Tassie or the Zubat could slip up and tell her something she had left off. So she told the whole story, everything, to the two Pokemon. Rose remained silent and still, only blinking on occasion. When the story was done, she only nodded silently.

"So I'm going to go check on the rest now," Mipsy said awkwardly, only earning another nod. Her legs throbbed in complaint when she got back up, and she threw a dirty glance at the backpack she'd dumped in one corner. Once she'd used some of the things in there, she wouldn't be replacing them in such bulk.

The baby Wingull cawed and held out his short wings when she passed by him. She grinned, "I'll be right back, little one."

She kissed his forehead and left the room again. As she walked down the narrow hall, someone dressed in dark clothes brushed past her, obviously in a hurry. She glanced over her shoulder, but the person had already disappeared in the shadows.

When she came out into the Center's lobby, it was full of several trainers, most dripping wet. She saw the back of a Ninjask's head above those of the other people, which meant Kirra was here as well. Somehow, that surprised her, though it really shouldn't have. Kirra was just another experienced trainer, who had done her a couple favors. Nothing more.

But Mipsy was still cognizant of being watched as she stepped up to the counter and retrieved her three Pokeballs. "Hey kid," Kirra called when she'd fastened the orbs to her belt. Turning around, she saw that the older trainer was beckoning to her with one hand. As she came closer, what Kirra was holding in the crook of her arm became apparent. It was a baby pokemon, an Azurill. It slept peacefully, belly up, looking adorable in the position. Jitsu raised a claw and waved at Mipsy when she was only a few feet away.

"Hi Kirra. Um, cute Azurill," she stated awkwardly.

Kirra smiled, "This is Aubrey. I'd let you hold him if he wasn't asleep," she said quietly. "So, have you challenged Brawley yet?"

It came as a surprise that she was asking Mipsy about herself, but then again, they hadn't talked much. "No, I haven't. I've been busy getting supplies and staying put, since that egg hatched."

"Was it a Wingull?"

"Yup."

"Ah. Are you having any trouble feeding him?"

"Well…" Mipsy told her about how Rose was feeding him her nectar. As she was talking, the Azurill woke and fixed his eyes on her, eyes that were slowly filling with tears. She looked back into those eyes as Kirra talked to the nurse and surrendered five Pokeballs, all her pokemon excepting Aubrey. The nurse stated that it would be a while, motioning to a pair of Chansey that were double-teaming on the healing machine to get the surplus of Pokeballs through. There were trays stacked up behind one chansey, one tray for each trainer.

"Um… would you like to meet the baby Wingull?" Mipsy asked awkwardly as Kirra turned away. She looked odd without Jitsu perched on her head.

"I'd love to."

Rose was still watching television when the girls entered the room. Mipsy released Razzle, who received an excited caw from the baby bird. _"Hey, it's you again," _he stated at Kirra.

As she responded to Razzle, she sat on the remaining chair, looking at baby Wingull with a frown on her face. "He's going to need solid food soon," she said to Mipsy. "Already chewed a little and all that good stuff. Do you think you can handle that?"

"Sure," she replied. "I'm only going to do half the feeding, right _mommy_?"

_"Yeah, right. …Huh?" _Razzle hadn't caught what she'd said, just agreed on impulse.

Kirra was still frowning as she nodded again. Aubrey squirmed out of the hold she had him in, bouncing neatly on his tail and moving towards the Wingull. He squeaked and baby Wingull cawed back. Soon, the two baby pokemon seemed locked in a friendly conversation. "So, what's his name?"

_"Guess," _Razzle said, laughing some.

Mipsy groaned, "Razzle! Why can't you just tell us his name?"

"He did," Kirra said. "Guess. It's a nice name. Did you think of it, Ralts?"

_"The name's Razzle. No, unfortunately not, Tassie did. Tassie is Mipsy's Beautifly."_

"Oh, she evolved," the teen grinned.

Mipsy was about to say something when she felt a soft brush on her pant leg. Aubrey tilted his head to one side, squeaking at her. Apparently, he was done talking to Guess. She held her hands out to him, which he took as an invitation to bounce up to her. Unfortunately, since she was bent over, he didn't bounce into her lap, rather he managed to spring onto the top of her head. He giggled, kicking his little feet.

After Mipsy had plucked him off of her head and he settled in her lap, she and Kirra began to talk about the weather. The teen didn't mention Guess anymore, though her gaze would sometimes wander towards him, and she was always frowning when Mipsy noticed this. Kirra eventually glanced at her watch and said, "I'd better be getting my pokemon. Can I trust you with Aubrey for a few minutes?" since the Azurill was fast asleep in her lap, Mipsy nodded, though she felt a little nervous when Kirra left the room. A trainer that left her pokemon with another trainer was either trusting or foolish, perhaps both. But this act of trust left her with a bad feeling.

_"There's something wrong," _Razzle stated.

"How so?"

_"Kirra never said ten words to you at one time. Now she's chatting like you two are old friends," _he replied. _"I don't like it, Mipsy…" _Rose was nodding as well.

Aubrey chose that time to stir, blinking up at her innocently. "C'mon Razzle," she said as she rubbed the Azurill between his ears. "If she makes you feel like that, we'll go give her Aubrey back, so—"

_"Okay sounds good let's go!" _Razzle had jumped to his feet and was shuffling towards the door. Sighing, Mipsy picked up Kirra's Azurill and followed.

Right before they turned into the center's main room, they heard the teen's voice, very quiet, mumbling, "Right, right, I know… I understand, Nathan… Tomorrow. Got it… bye," a slight _click_, and she nearly ran straight into Mipsy coming around the corner, a cell phone in one hand. Jitsu had claimed his place again on her head.

"Um," Mipsy paused for a few seconds, her eyes rolled up to the left. "I forgot to get something at the forum. It's important, so here's Aubrey back—" the Azurill was very upset to be handed back to Kirra, he tried to squirm back into the girl's arms, "—I'll see you around."

Kirra gave a half-smile, "Alright kid. See you."

To finish the lie, she had to leave. But there was a problem—it was still raining. She hadn't broken out her umbrella. She hesitated for a second, and then turned back towards the hallway, just to see that Kirra had already disappeared. "Did you see where Kirra went?" she asked Razzle.

_"Nope," _he replied. Neither of them checked the shadows, where two gray eyes followed their path until they went back into the room.

Mipsy searched her backpack, then the closet and chest. She had unearthed a small umbrella and a navy jacket with an attachable hood. The umbrella was useless, when she opened it, it had a couple of holes. How something so beaten up had made in into her pack, Mipsy didn't know, but she tossed it into the trash and placed the hooded jacket on the bed. Afterwards, she turned the television back off—it'd been turned off when Kirra had entered, then Rose had turned it on again—and released Tassie from her Pokeball. The white mass of light settled on the floor before it solidified to reveal the Beautifly with her wings fanned out. "Oou?"

"Nice name for Guess," she said, grinning. Tassie squeaked happily. "I'm going to release our new teammate soon, the Zubat. Will you guys be nice to each other for now, please…?"

_"Aren't we always nice?" _Razzle asked, genuinely confused. She had been addressing Tassie and Rose, who weren't on the fondest of terms. The two female pokemon exchanged glares at that point, before Tassie fluttered over to the top of the wooden chest.

The Zubat, when it materialized, was fast asleep. For a few awkward moments, Mipsy and her pokemon just stared at the bat. Razzle was, of course, the one to break the silence. _"Um… hellooo? Wake up…"_

It uncurled its wings, pausing in that position. Mipsy hesitantly walked towards the bat, saying, "I'm going to pick you up. Please don't bite me…" her hands closed around its middle. It didn't bite her at all; it did something worse than that. Opening its mouth wide, the bat emitted an awful screeching, flapping its wings wildly, enough to slip out of the trainer's grasp. It flew around in circles, still screeching. Guess was wailing, even with Rose covering his ears as best as she could with her roses. Razzle was talking in Ralts tongue, while Mipsy frantically thought of what to do. Leaning back and enjoying the show, Tassie just remained where she was.

Finally, the Zubat calmed down, though it took both Razzle and Mipsy's coaxing to start talking to them. The Zubat words that Razzle could translate were unlike the screeches, they were high-pitched, but seemed much like Azurill squeaks. Through Razzle, she knew some things, mainly: the Zubat's name was Zyair and she didn't understand what being 'captured' really meant. She was also sleepy and irritable at being woken. When she fell back asleep while Mipsy was in mid-question, she was returned. "Well…" she sighed. "We're going to wake her up every time she needs to battle."

At that moment, there was a knock on the door. _"I'll get it!" _Razzle raced to the door and fumbled with the knob. Mipsy was halfway to the door when he got it open, and said, _"He—oh, it's you again."_

"You don't sound enthusiastic," Kirra said, shaking her head. She smiled at Mipsy, "Sorry to bother you, but I heard the racket. Is everything okay…?"

"Yeah," Mipsy nodded. Something tackled her leg, it was Aubrey, giggling.

The teen was smiling sheepishly, "Sorry, that wasn't the reason why I came… Aubrey really wanted to see you again."

Mipsy didn't comment that, maybe, thirty minutes had passed since she last saw the Azurill. "Oh. Come in, then," she said. Kirra pushed on the door, but Razzle wouldn't budge. "Razzle… it would help if you opened the door…"

_"Right," _he gave in and let her pass. Mipsy scooped up Aubrey and smiled when he giggled happily. Guess was asleep when Kirra sat down in the spare chair again, looking at him with her thoughtful frown.

"Mipsy, I trained a female Pelipper when I was eleven," she said. "Her name is Pelican. I still have her," the girl nodded, a little perplexed that Kirra was mentioning this. "She has some experience with rearing young Wingull. So, I'd like to ask, would you be interested in a trade? Aubrey for your Guess. Aubrey is already eating solid food, so feeding him won't trouble you."

_"No, Guess is just fine with us," _Razzle said quickly for his trainer.

"Wait Razzle," the Ralts glanced at her, his eyes shining, just faintly. "Will you trade Guess back to me when he's fully grown?"

"I'd give him back to you," Kirra answered, shrugging. "Aubrey would be happier with you. I can see that."

_"Mipsy…" _Razzle's voice was pleading. _"Please…"_

Mipsy glanced down at Aubrey who she had cradled against her chest. His eyes were just as pleading as Razzle's voice. Rose was waving one rose to catch the girl's attention, and she nodded, just slightly, when the trainer glanced at her. She swallowed hard. "O-okay. It'll only be for a couple months…"

Razzle gasped and turned away from her. The whole time, Guess had been asleep, unaware that he was about to pass to a different trainer. "But will you give us some time to say goodbye?" Mipsy asked.

"Sure," the teen got to her feet and took out a Pokeball, returning Aubrey. "I'll be waiting in the lobby."

As the door clicked behind Kirra, Razzle turned on her. _"Why'd you accept? Why?"_

Mipsy opened her mouth to speak, but it was Rose that saved her. The Roselia spoke in quick, sharp words, gesturing at Guess and him and shaking her head. Razzle had deflated visibly by the time she was done. "What'd she say?"

He shot her a distasteful look and didn't answer. A word from Rose prompted him to say, rather grudgingly, _"Rose says that Guess was beginning to refuse her nectar. It was time for him to find a real mother—not a Ralts," _she felt a sudden pang of guilt at his unhappiness. It was best for Guess, but he'd grown attached to the little birdie.

"Razzle, we're going to see him again," she said. "Just after he's done growing. He'll be the same Guess."

Guess, by that time, was awake, and looking from Rose to Razzle to Mipsy with confusion. The Roselia began to gently speak to him as the trainer hugged Razzle, who was sniffling helplessly. They had him hopping towards them, cawing, by then.

Trading Guess was not a very popular idea to any of them, even Rose, but eventually Mipsy walked out to the lobby followed by the rest of her pokemon except Zyair. Kirra was waiting near the trading machine with Aubrey's Pokeball in hand, and a smile passed over her lips for a few seconds. "Just place Guess's Pokeball here," she said, pointing towards a chamber to the side of the machine. A similar chamber was on her side as well, connected to a tube that bent at the center before joining the second tube connected to the other chamber. At the simple click of a button, the Pokeballs were sucked up into the tubes, and after the brief _whirr _of machinery, spat out at the other end.

"I don't see the point of that," Mipsy said as she took Aubrey's Pokeball from the chamber.

"The machine is supposed to keep a record of the trade, just incase there needs to be proof that, for example, I didn't originally capture Guess," Kirra said. She probably could've told Mipsy a lot more, but the girl let the subject drop.

The teenaged girl hesitated for a second before asking, "Are you planning on staying in Dewford, Mipsy?"

* * *

The next day, right after lunch, Mipsy found herself standing in line with Kirra, waiting to get onto a ship that would take them to Slateport City. She held Aubrey with both hands, since Kirra had volunteered to hold her ticket for her. The only other pokemon she had out, Razzle, shuffled next to her. He hadn't forgiven her yet, and was completely silent the whole wait. Kirra kept glancing at the girl with an unreadable expression on her face. Something was on her mind. Something had beenon her mind the entire time she'd been around Mipsy for those two days.

The rain had stopped, but by the look of the clouds above, it might start again at any time, so Mipsy wore her navy jacket. It was well past noon when they made it aboard the ship, but it was chilly enough outside for her to zip up her coat. The first thing she and Kirra did was find their cabin—they were sharing it for the trip. While Mipsy collapsed on the single chair that stood in the corner of the room, Kirra disappeared again. The room that they'd rented was snug, with walls covered in burgundy wallpaper trimmed with gold. A double-bunk bed took up most of the space in the room. It was tacked down firmly to the floor, like the bureau and small bedside table. The lamp didn't appear to be secured, yet when she tried to lift it, it wouldn't budge.

The only outside light came from a window that faced the pier. The cabin was on the second level, so Mipsy hoped that she would be able to see marine pokemon on her trip. "So, what do you think?" she finally asked Razzle when she was done inspecting the place. She sighed when he nodded, silent. Aubrey bubbled with delight, however, at being able to bounce on the top bunk and almost reach the ceiling. Mipsy called him down when he got close to doing so and bumping his head, and had to catch him when he bounced into her arms.

They were heading back to the deck when a man came over the loudspeaker, announcing that the ship was about to set sail. Mipsy held onto the rail next to the stairs firmly while the ship jarred into motion. Dewford was already a ways behind when she reached the deck and started to look for Kirra.

Kirra wasn't hard to spot with Jitsu on her head. She was with another teen Mipsy recalled seeing on Isle Rockola, the boy with black hair and a bandana. "As soon as Dewford is out of sight," he was saying as Mipsy approached.

Aubrey, who had been in a great mood, suddenly was squirming and squeaking unhappily. It caught attention from the two teens, and Kirra gave her half-smile, "You should probably go back to our cabin," she said. "Nothing is going to happen on deck…"

"Yes, but I want to be up here, for the fresh air."

"It might rain," she pointed out. Mipsy was aware of a pleading tone that had seeped into the teen's voice.

"Alright. I'll go back down," she said. She got herself lost in a crowd and watched Kirra and the boy from a distance.

_"Something's not right," _Razzle surprised her by speaking. He was watching them just as intently as Mipsy was. _"Aubrey, why don't you like Kirra?"_

It was a question she wanted to know as well, but had forgotten to ask. The Azurill hesitantly started saying something when the first Pokeballs were thrown. Kirra and her friend were at separate ends of the boat; she was standing next to a Kadabra, while the boy had a Grumpig. Razzle exclaimed in his native tongue and his form glowed purple. _"A psychic barrier," _he said to Mipsy, forgetting his anger for the moment.

"Why are they—"

"Listen up all of you!" an unfamiliar voice came over the loudspeaker. A pause, in which confused murmurs raised up from the passengers. "This ship is now the property of Team Aqua, and—" Shouts drowned out whatever the voice was going to say. Many Pokeballs were thrown and the deck was filled with a myriad of different pokemon. Confusion followed, as many of the pokemon started attacking each other and mostly missed the true enemy.

Mipsy was watching Kirra intently as she unbuttoned her jacket to reveal a black-and-white striped shirt and tied a blue bandana around her forehead. She felt numb. "So, that's what you're afraid of Aubrey…" she managed only a whisper since her mouth had gone dry.

The Azurill was curled up as close to her as possibly, squeaking quietly. She returned him to his Pokeball. _"What's the plan, Mipsy?" _Razzle asked.

She looked towards Kirra's friend and saw his Grumpig raise his paws, glowing with a thick blue aura. A Swellow crumpled to the deck, fast asleep. Several others followed the bird, until the trainers were beginning to fall asleep as well. Mipsy's eyes widened when the sleep waves were close to her, then felt paralysis in her limbs and collapsed, not about to wake for a long time.


	8. Falsehoods Part II

**Chapter 8 **

Two people were talking at a distance, so far away that their voices mingled together into a hum. The hum irritated Mipsy's head as she returned to the waking world, which was cause for her splitting headache. Her eyes refused to focus, the world was too bright and her eyes watered. As she closed her eyes, she drifted off again…

This time the conversation was clearer; at least she could tell that the two speaking were unfamiliar to her. The headache had not subsided, and the initial rush of light was just as blinding as before. She opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was a cough—her mouth felt like it had a wad of cotton in it. The pattern in the conversation changed; apparently they'd noticed that she was awake. Something cold and hard was pressed to her lips at an angle. Obediently, she opened her mouth and cool water seeped down her throat. The voice was close enough to her ear that she could make out what it was saying, "All you have to do is answer a few questions, and then we'll release you."

Release her…? Mipsy tried to move her arms, just to find that they were bound to her sides. Slowly, the scene from the ship came back to her—the voice over the loudspeaker, Kirra wearing the Team Aqua uniform, the Grumpig's hypnosis attack—and she groaned. "W-where am I?" Her voice was just a whisper, water or not, her throat was still parched.

There was no reply.

Her eyes slowly got used to the light, meaning she could pick out the figures of the two that were standing near her. One, an older teen, looked rather bored. She held the empty glass at her side, while her free hand twirled a dark lock. Mipsy stared at it for a long moment, finally deciding that she wasn't seeing wrong. The teen that stood before her in the Team Aqua uniform had navy hair.

The other figure that she had heard talking was no human, but a Grumpig. In one purple paw he held a green-and-white pokeball. At his feet, in a messy pile, were her Pokedex, pokeball belt, and backpack. As she watched, the Pokedex gained a blue aura and floated over to the teen. "You should know that we've already removed the tracking device from this thing," she said.

Great. Now nobody would know that she'd been taken… wherever she was taken to. "So, are you going to talk, or what?" The teen continued with annoyance creeping into her voice. She tossed the Pokedex into the air and the aura caught it again, making it float back to the floor. The Grumpig yawned, leaning against the bright white wall.

The teen shrugged, not waiting for an answer. "You know Kirra Knightly?" Mipsy nodded slowly. "Well, she's going to be your team leader."

"What? I'm not—"

Mipsy bit off her own sentence, but not because she wanted to. The Grumpig's eyes had glowed for a second, and now she couldn't open her mouth.

"Right. As I was saying…" the teen paused, thinking.

The Grumpig snorted, _"There are a few things you need to do first. Such as—"_

"Thank you Magical," she interrupted. He snorted again. "Such as, you need to actually join…"

Mipsy tried to say something, without her lips open it sounded like 'mmph-mmph.' The teen glared at the Grumpig, and she suddenly had use of her mouth again. "I'm not going to join Team Aqua," she gasped out.

The two of them exchanged a glance and in a blinding flash that hurt Mipsy's eyes, Rose was released from her pokeball. The Roselia looked around silently while a blue aura gathered around her form. "Would you rather join Team Aqua, or see this pretty little pokemon ripped apart before your very eyes?"

Her eyes widened, "You wouldn't…" The Grumpig closed his paw and Rose howled. A few petals fell from her roses when he opened his paw again, allowing her to fall to her knees. Rose huffed, as if she'd been running.

"What do you say now?" The teen still seemed bored. Mipsy tried to reply, but she was too lost for words. Taking her silence as a refusal, the psychic pig resumed his attack.

This time Rose bit back her cry and just shook in obvious pain. Her trainer opened her mouth to speak, just as the door crashed open. The Grumpig immediately stopped; turning to stare at the teen Kirra had been with on the ship. He leaned against the door, scowling, "I thought I made my orders very clear, Melody. We aren't using the old methods anymore."

"My admin told me otherwise," the teen responded.

He was silent for a long moment, "Magical, release the plant and the girl," he ordered.

Rose crumpled to the floor without psychic support. The ropes binding Mipsy's arms and legs slowly unwound from her, and she stood, shakily, before collapsing back into the chair. A force—she was sure it was the Grumpig—made her stand again. She would've fallen again, had Magical released her. "Follow me," said the boy, as he snatched up her pokeball belt and returned Rose.

Mipsy didn't have much of a choice, as her legs moved in accordance to Magical's whim. She followed through a hallway that was painted the same bright white as the room she'd been in. They passed by several rooms that she realized were quite small, as she stole glances in each one. The hall ended in an area open to the sky. The ship was docked in the water, rocking just slightly as a few people rushed around its deck. Behind the ship, across a short stretch of water, were two huge gates. Sunlight streamed down from above, the sky was completely cloudless.

The teen kept going, he led her through another narrow hallway before taking a sharp turn and going up a staircase. Magical, who was following behind her, had to float her up half the stairs when she fell too behind. From the stairs was another, short, hall, and then he held up his arm to stop her. Before them was a cafeteria that had maybe a couple dozen people in it. None of them were eating, but at the reminder of food, Mipsy's stomach growled.

"Stay here," he said. The teen walked off, still holding her Pokeball belt. He went to one of the tables and sat down next to someone with green hair. A couple minutes later, he turned and nodded at her and the Grumpig.

_"Nathan says to join him at that table," _Magical remarked, pointing to one. It glowed blue for a second. She jumped when he spoke, causing him to snort, _"Can you walk on your own?" _His psychic powers slowly drained from her, even though she stumbled, she had been walking long enough to get the numbness out of her legs. The Grumpig snorted again as she began to walk towards the table and disappeared.

A thought crossed Mipsy's mind unbidden. _Why don't I just run away? _She would be safe from Team Aqua… maybe. But then she'd be leaving her pokemon behind. She'd seen what they did to Rose. She didn't want that to happen again…

Nathan and a few others had moved to the table that Magical had pointed out. Nathan, Kirra, and another teen sat on one side, while a few others—some of which were around Mipsy's age—sat across from them. Kirra motioned to the seat across from her when Mipsy was close enough.

"Who goes first?" Nathan asked when she was seated, "Eric, shall you do the honors?"

After a moment, Mipsy recognized Eric as the last of Kirra's companions from Isle Rockola, the one that hadn't spoken a word. Even sitting down, he appeared impressively tall. "Sure," he said. His voice was high and cracked a bit over that one word. "Well, this must seem like a shock—being on a ship, then just appearing here. But for the next six months, until your contracts expire, you'll all be members of Team Aqua. You'll have to get used to the three of us—" he indicated himself, Kirra, and Nathan with a hand gesture "—because we're going to be your team leaders." He introduced the three of them by their first names only.

Kirra picked up from there, "We're trying something new with this process, though. No signing your life away in blood," the woman next to Mipsy cringed, causing the teen to smile slightly. "Instead, you'll only have to serve Team Aqua for six months. Our three teams are considered freelance, so mostly we won't bother your quests with missions."

"How would that keep us from spilling all of Aqua's secrets to the first police officer?" Asked a boy.

Her smile was menacing, "Nothing sensitive will pass through your ears. Why tell the police you're a member of Team Aqua when you can silently pass the six months by?" There was no reply to that. She nodded to Eric.

"I have the documents you need to sign, right here," he said, picking up a clipboard that had been resting on his lap. "You get your pokemon back in exchange for a signature."

* * *

Mipsy relaxed, just slightly, when the familiar weight of her belt was back around her waist. She hadn't had enough time to release one of her pokemon, before she was off again, following Kirra this time. There was a lot she wanted to say to the redhead, but none of which she should say while they were in the company of the woman she'd been sitting beside. Casting a glance at her, Mipsy noted that her lips were set into a hard line.

The woman was older than many of the other 'recruits' that had come off the boat, with a plump, kind-looking face. She wore a tan shirt with a pattern of the little five-petal flowers that grew in Dewford Town. An islander, perhaps. She looked about as happy to be there as Mipsy felt.

"Do you have any objections to being given pseudonyms?" Kirra asked over her shoulder. "And getting new hairstyles?"

"I could use a new hairstyle," the woman remarked dryly. "But I'll think of my own pseudonym."

"Ah, alright. Mipsy?"

"Um. Sure. To both," her thoughts flickered back to Melody, with her navy hair, and wondered what was about to befall her own.

Kirra led them down another staircase and out into the open. She stopped and said, "That building is the women's barracks." She pointed to a brick building half hidden by trees. After digging into the purse-like bag she had by her side, Kirra produced two keys with bits of paper attached to them. She glanced at one before handing it to Mipsy. "The first number is what floor the room is on. You'll find your belongings there, later."

"And now, I'll take ya'll to the salon."

* * *

All Mipsy's pokemon stared at her in astonishment. Well, except for Zyair—she didn't have eyes, after all. Rose, who had been sent to a healing machine, scowled at the girl rather than stared at her. Razzle held one hand to his mouth, contemplating her with his head to one side. Finally, he said, _"Mipsy, I'm touched. You, you match… my pokeball."_

Mipsy was blushing furiously. The women at the salon seemed to have a lot of fun with hair dye. They'd changed hers to a dark, almost black, shade of purple. She supposed it was better than green, but still—purple? Tassie giggled as she fluttered, Razzle translated it as he smothered a snicker, _"Tassie says you remind her of a flower."_

Rose put her roses to her hips and said something of protest to that. Tassie responded heatedly, and the two of them were caught up in a glaring match.

The trainer sighed; "Guys, I need to explain a couple of things…" she told them about her situation with Team Aqua, to different levels of surprise. Aubrey looked completely horrified, Rose barely blinked—she knew already. Zyair's response was to flutter her wings, which was more of an acknowledgement that Mipsy expected.

When she was done, Razzle exclaimed, _"No problem! We can just run away and they'll never be able to punish us!"_

She cringed. "I don't think it works like that…"

"Oou!" Tassie exclaimed, looking in his direction. He replied in Ralts tongue. Mipsy let the two of them talk as she searched for her belongings. The stack of clothes that Kirra had shoved at her still remained on the small table that was close to the door. Mipsy flinched inwardly every time she looked at the black-and-white striped shirts and the bandanna.

Her bag and Pokedex rested in the next room, on the bed. It hardly gave at all to her weight when she rested on it. It didn't seem very comfortable, but it was still inviting to Mipsy—even though she'd apparently gotten a lot of sleep, it didn't feel like it at all. But she ignored the impulse to lie down as she opened her backpack and dumped its contents on the bed. Potions, a plushie or two, and a lot of clothes went everywhere with a muffled thump. It was the clothes she was after, her instructions were clear—she was to wear one of those striped shirts under her normal shirt or jacket. She had picked out a shirt with a few ducks on it, one of them sleeping. "We can't all be morning people" was written across the top of it.

A thought struck her. "Hey, are any of your hungry?" She called.

_"Enough to eat a Miltank!" _Razzle exclaimed, not missing a beat. Mipsy abandoned the mess she'd made; it could wait for a bit.

"Come on, then," she said, scooping up Aubrey. The Azurill looked up at her with watering eyes, and she looked back for a long moment. He'd wanted to go with her, to avoid being with Team Aqua. And look what Mipsy ended up in… she was startled from her reverie when Razzle tugged on her pant leg impatiently.

She hadn't memorized where everything was yet, so she was relieved when she ran into her teammate—the woman who'd introduced herself as Abby. She had a Delcatty at her feet, apparently going the same way as Mipsy. The two of them got a little lost in the big main building before reaching the cafeteria. Mipsy kept an eye on Rose, but she had no problem making the trip outside her pokeball. It was Zyair that had to return to her own pokeball when the remaining light of the evening began to irritate her skin.

Abby was a pleasant companion to have, she chattered on and on to the younger girl about where she was going to college, Pokemon Tech, in another region. She'd returned to Dewford Town for the summer, just to be caught up in Team Aqua. "The plane tickets were expensive," Abby said. "I can't just hop back and forth between Kanto and Hoenn once the summer is over."

By then, they had found the cafeteria. They weren't the only ones with pokemon out… many Zubat and its evolutions clustered on the roof, clinging to small poles built as claw-holds. Mipsy sent Zyair out and the Zubat was more than willing to join her own kind. A great din came from the many trainers that clustered at the tables, the majority of which sported oddly colored hair. Mipsy glanced sideways at Abby, who had gotten lucky when her hair was dyed a light brown.

There were hardly any seats left for the two trainers, Mipsy realized. Only one table had some spots missing, the one secluded in a corner, longer than the rest—the one that was occupied by a man Mipsy recognized with a shudder. Archie, leader of Team Aqua, dined in the full uniform with only a few others, probably high-ranking officials.

"Mipsy, hello?" Abby poked the girl, startling her. "C'mon. Your pokemon are going to be finished by the time you've gotten something," the girl looked around, seeing that Razzle and the rest had disappeared. Abby half-dragged her to a doorway that led to a kitchen-like area.

That's where her pokemon were, who already had food in hand. Mipsy caught Razzle saying, _"Oh, my trainer will pick up the bill. See, there she is!" _He pointed at her and scurried off.

She got her dinner—some sort of chicken dish—and paid for five meals. The price wasn't bad, but it still bit into her remaining funds hard. She carried her meal in one hand, and took Aubrey's dish from Rose, who'd opted to carry two. Only Razzle had left, the rest of her pokemon waited for her.

The dish of kibble looked very unappealing to Mipsy, and apparently she wasn't the only one to think so, when Razzle appeared again, a purple glow around his form and his plate barely touched. _"This isn't food!" _He exclaimed at the cashier, a woman gone gray who looked at him sourly as Abby paid for her meal.

Razzle shook the dish, _"I paid good money for this, and it isn't even edible! Why can't I have something like that?" _ He pointed at what Mipsy was holding.

"Because, dear, you're a _pokemon_," said the cashier. "That's what we serve to your kind."

The Ralts spluttered for a moment, _"But I can't eat it. It's too hard, see?" _He took one of the pieces of kibble and gnawed on it.

"Razzle," Mipsy said as she bent down, carefully balancing both plates she held on her palms. "I'll buy you a meal like mine if you want it—"

_"That's okay Mipsy, I've got this under control," _he replied, stepping forward and glaring at the cashier.

"What do you want from me, kid?" The woman asked. "I can't—" She cut herself off as a plate floated over her head towards the Ralts. She grabbed for it, succeeding in making it skew to one side, spilling its contents over her hands and onto one of the plates Mipsy held, the one with the kibble, which wobbled precariously with the added weight. The cashier cried out and tried to flick the hot sauce off her hands while Razzle lost his psychic grip on the plate and it fell sideways, bouncing off the plate he had had originally with enough force to knock it to the floor, shattering. It hit Rose's plate off of where it was lying on one of her roses, both clattered noisily. That was just as Mipsy lost her balance and the plate of kibble was dropped at an angle that flipped her own meal at Abby's Delcatty's feet. With a happy _mmrow_, the cat licked at some of the splattered sauce.

Tassie looked around at the chaos, then at her own plate. She flipped it over, so it would match the rest.

"Oops," Mipsy said. "…Now will you give him a chicken dinner?"

The cashier sighed heavily. Abby came to the girl's rescue. "Yeah, you owe them all new meals, since you caused all that."

So Razzle was contented to have the human meal, while Mipsy and Abby sat together, with a group that paid them no mind.

* * *

It was dark out when Mipsy returned to the women's barracks. Zyair fluttered above her head, quite awake, unlike her trainer. The bat and Tassie were the only ones of her pokemon still out, the rest had gone back into their pokeballs to sleep. Tassie had made friends with the Zubat; they played an aerial version of tag. The Beautifly was It for most of the time they played.

Abby and her Delcatty parted from them at the first floor; their room was close by. As Mipsy waited in the elevator for the third floor, she smiled inwardly. Even though Abby was twice her age, she was friendly, and given her situation, that might be rare.

She nearly stepped on a note when she entered her room. It was in Kirra's slanted handwriting, telling her to be outside the women's barracks at six a.m. She glanced at Zyair, who was still wide-awake, wondering if she would still be like that when Mipsy had to get up. Probably.

Mipsy released her pokemon again, they weren't completely asleep yet, but—Rose especially—didn't appreciate the interruption. "Sorry about that," she said as she locked the door. "But I think you all should sleep outside your pokeballs for a while."

_"Why—oh," _Razzle cut himself off. He jumped on the small couch, sprawling across half of it, _"I call this place!" _Tassie giggled and landed on the other half, leaving the rest looking around for someplace to go. Zyair couldn't find a place to hang on to on the ceiling, so she settled on the top of the open-backed chair that was, Mipsy realized, the only chair. It went with the kitchenette, a place she thought she should start using, looking at the cost of getting meals from the cafeteria.

She watched Rose and Aubrey cuddle together on the seat of the chair; they were too small to fall out the back of it, so she didn't worry too much about them, even though it appeared to be an uncomfortable place to sleep. "Good night," she murmured and went into the other room, where her bed and all her items awaited her. The clothes she hid in the closet, to fold up later. She gathered the potion-related stuff and put it back in the bag, along with other stuff.

The only things that stayed out were her nightclothes and a plushie Dragonair. The plushie was about the size of Rose, it was soft, and depicted one of the rare pokemon Mipsy wanted to someday see; she'd heard a little bit about Dragonair from her parents, since it was the pre-evolved form of Dragonite.

She went to bed cuddled with the plushie for comfort. A lot had happened that day. She'd signed her services to Team Aqua for six months, when she hadn't even had a pokemon by her side for three weeks. The person she'd thought was her friend—Kirra—had the biggest push into her having to join. Kirra was the one to suggest getting onto that ship. She could've easily said nothing.

Then there was Rose, who was starting to glare at Mipsy whenever attention came to the girl. She hadn't stopped the Roselia's pain went she could've, instead it was Nathan who did when Mipsy's consent was right on the tip of her tongue. No matter what Mipsy did, Rose found some fault in it to be offended at.

And what would the people she knew—Professor Birch, Brendan, Marvin, her mom and dad, even the people of the _Dancing Dragonite_—say if they saw her in that Team Aqua uniform? Sure, she could tell them that she was forced into it, but the initial impression on them would be massive. Would she still check in at every town, when it was only to protect her from what she'd had to join? And her tracking device—though it was a relief to know that she wasn't being tracked—it was probably in the belly of some Tentacool, swimming around Routes 106, 107, 108, and 109. It would look… interesting… to whomever tried to locate her, just to find that she was somewhere out to sea.

And _where _would her seventh and onward pokemon go, if she managed to catch that many?

It was with these thoughts, in the uncomfortably hard bed, in the small two rooms she had been given, in the women's barracks of the Team Aqua base that was located who-knows-where, that Mipsy fell asleep with, along with her preposterous purple hair and a Dragonair plushie.

It was around midnight when she drifted awake long enough to notice that her plushie was not only snoring, but had relocated to above the covers. She placed a hand on its side, the fine fur felt smooth and warm while it moved with its breathing. She must've made a sound, for the plushie stirred and a tiny voice murmured, "Rill…" before it moved into the crook of her arm and resumed its sleep. Mipsy found the real plushie under Aubrey's weight, acting as a cushion for him. She suspected that he hadn't been there long, which was cause for her to wake up. She picked him up and shifted him to the other side of the bed, where he wouldn't fall off the edge if she rolled over. Instinctively, he moved towards her and rested his head on her elbow, using it as a sort of pillow with the covers between them.

Mipsy caught a whiff of Rose's scent close to her pillow, but she guessed the Roselia had returned to her chair. Either way, she was soon drifting off and waking again to a loud buzzer from the bedside clock. Aubrey complained along with Mipsy at having to get up. After taking a shower, Mipsy left her room with her pokemon still sleeping, but inside their pokeballs with her.

Kirra glanced at her cell phone when Mipsy got outside the barracks. "Abby's late," she murmured. There was a boy a little older than Mipsy with her, who looked awake and alert. His skin was pasty white, as if he didn't go out in the sun too often, which matched his white-blonde hair well. He had high cheekbones and an angular face, with eyes obscured by sunglasses. Mipsy wondered how he could see; when she realized the way he looked down on her was his was of looking over the top of them. His skin and hair were the only light things about him, as he wore all black.

When he spoke, his voice had a nasal quality, "So, who is this?"

"I'm—"

Kirra cut her off, "This is Morgan, the other recruit," she said quickly. Mipsy blinked at her blankly, the boy didn't see it, since he was looking at Kirra. "And Morgan, this is Seth." She mouthed, 'tell you later' with a wink when he turned away.

"Nice to meet you, Morgan," Seth said brusquely. His tone was the exact opposite to what he'd said, but before she could comment back, Abby appeared.

Kirra didn't comment about lateness to Abby, instead introduced her to Seth and said, "We're going off to the shipyard. Abby, Morgan, this is going to be a lesson to you about how things work. Seth, hmm…"

"Nah, you don't give long tours," he sighed.

She led them towards the main building, "The ship we were on has been returned to Route 108," Kirra began. "Half the passengers and all the crew were left on it."

"How is that possible?" Abby asked. "They must remember—"

"Psychic pokemon can remove memories," said Seth. "And several of them can teleport big objects…"

"…The passengers will wake up with a headache in their cabins, and not remember how they got there," Kirra picked up. Mipsy shuddered—those people would never know how lucky they were…

"But that's not of so much importance right now," she continued. They were passing by the main building in a large arc, through a courtyard with a few stone benches to rest on. Mipsy spotted the other side of the water gates that she'd seen yesterday, leading out into a stretch of water that forked two ways. Kirra followed the one that went to the right, "The shipyard is where we need the most hands. For a couple of days, I need you three to stay here and… make yourselves useful somewhere around the shipyard. I know, it's not very definite. By the way, Seth, do you remember what the ship is going to be called?"

"The _Sapphire Milotic_, ma'am," he said.

Kirra snickered, "And you'll find the dock master has quite a way with names."

Mipsy and Abby exchanged glances, "Breakfast is served until noon, but I expect you two to eat with Seth and me at six thirty sharp," she continued. "Then we'll all be at the mercy of the dock master. Here we are, by the way… there's the _Sapphire Milotic _right there," Kirra pointed at the suspended shell of a ship that looked solid at the angle they were standing at, but as they circled around it, Mipsy could see that only half of the outside was fully completed, and hardly any of the inside was finished. The shell was huge and several people were already at work on it, held in the air by psychic pokemon or standing on ladders held by a few others.

"That's about it, for now," Kirra said. "Let's get some breakfast."

"See, I told you she doesn't give long tours," Seth mumbled.

She scowled at him as she asked, "Any questions—Abby, Morgan?"

"Will you explain the ranking system?" Abby spoke up. "I thought in these big teams, you are either a grunt or an admin."

Kirra laughed, "It's still like that. There are only a few admins—don't get in one's way, they have no qualms about stomping over anyone—and the rest of us serve them. The entry level has many names, the most flattering of which is 'grunt.' The next step up is team leader. A team leader commands three to five grunts, unless one resigns… or dies," Seth coughed at the dramatic pause she put in. "Above team leader is commander, who is in charge of three team leaders and their grunts. And above that is admin. Then there's our leader, Archie. And that's about all you need to know."

Jitsu's wings buzzed once and he hopped off her head, flying away. "What's gotten into him?" Asked Seth.

Kirra was looking in the direction he'd flown off in, "He's heading towards the north gate. Prisoners, perhaps? He'll come back."

He did, pointing a claw in that direction and saying something. "Hold on Jitsu," she took a pokeball off her belt, and in a flash a Kadabra appeared at her side.

Jitsu said his message and the Kadabra's voice pierced Mipsy's thoughts, like a hot knife through butter, _"The Team Magma goons Nathan found at the police station have been captured," _he said.

"Oh. That's all?" Jitsu nodded.

Seth murmured to Mipsy behind his hand, "She does this a lot. Jitsu tells her everything _he _thinks is important."

Kirra thanked her Kadabra, who she called 'Mage.' He nodded, saying, _"Would you like a lift over there? It must be quite a scene." _He sounded almost eager to be over there.

She glanced at Abby and Mipsy for a second before shrugging, "Sure."

Before Mipsy could react, a powerful psychic mind had gripped her body for the split second it took to teleport the group. She recovered from the shock quickly, but spared a glance at Mage. He seemed to be powerful, but she wasn't much of a judge of psychic power. When she looked up, she recoiled. "Edward?"

The tall man gave her a smile that remained on his lips for only a second. "Ah, hi kid. I guess I have you to thank for these?" He held up his arms, which were linked together at the wrists by metal shackles.


End file.
